Need to randomize Array of Strings to be returned as both ques. and answer for jeopardy program

Question

   String[] am = new String[10];

   am[0] = "Sam";
   am[1] = "Sam";
   am[2] = "Sam";
   am[3] = "Sam";
   am[4] = "Sam";
   am[5] = "Sam";
   am[6] = "Sam";
   am[7] = "Sam";
   am[8] = "Sam";
   am[9] = "Sam";

For a jeopardy game, random questions per GUI Jpanel button click

Random won't appear very random if every item of the array says "Sam". BTW What is your question? — Andrew Thompson, May 18 '14 at 16:46
possible duplicate of [how to write a parallel array](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22122100/how-to-write-a-parallel-array) — jww, May 18 '14 at 22:55

Ad Fundum · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-18T16:54:04.923

Approach 1: Shuffling the list

You can shuffle your list using:

List<String> list = Arrays.asList(am);
Collections.shuffle(list);

Even better is starting with an ArrayList, and adding your possibilites to that ArrayList, completely ignoring the String[] array

List<String> list = new ArrayList<String>();
list.add("value1");
list.add("value2");
...
Collections.shuffle(list);

You can then retreive an element from the shuffeled list using get(index), i.e. :

String random = list.get(0);

Approach 2: Randomizing the index

If you insist on using the String[]-array, you can do

String random = am[new Random().nextInt(am.length)]

This will create a Random-object, and generate a random integer ranging from 0 to the length of your array minus one. Once this integer is generated, it will be used as an index for to get an element from your String[]-array.

You can use the same approach on an ArrayList:

String random = list.get(new Random().nextInt(list.size));

Your second option seems to work bset for me! Thanks for the response. — Magiichalo, May 18 '14 at 17:10

Need to randomize Array of Strings to be returned as both ques. and answer for jeopardy program

1 Answers1