Get random item from array

Question

$items = Array(523,3452,334,31,...5346);

Each item of this array is some number.

How do I get random item from $items?

http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-rand.php – Prix Nov 20 '10 at 15:17 — Prix, Nov 20 '10 at 15:17

Vincent Savard · Accepted Answer · 2017-03-02T13:58:23.207

575

echo $items[array_rand($items)];

array_rand()

edited Mar 02 '17 at 13:58

answered Nov 20 '10 at 15:17

Vincent Savard

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Used this inline to randomly pick youtube video from playlist on page load and is working great: – ioTus Jul 03 '14 at 06:07
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@TimoHuovinen also there might be an alien standing behind you... It doesn't concern the question directly. – sitilge Aug 07 '15 at 09:07
Remember to seed this function with ´srand()´ because of a known bug in PHP that does not seed it automatically. – Sanxofon Apr 18 '21 at 00:43

score 42 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 01 '16 at 15:03

42

If you don't mind picking the same item again at some other time:

$items[rand(0, count($items) - 1)];

edited Feb 01 '16 at 15:03

Carl0s1z

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answered Nov 20 '10 at 15:18

pastapockets

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How would you go about getting a random item when the keys are not numeric? – Peter Nov 18 '14 at 13:42
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…or if they keys are not in order (e.g., if you have `unset` array elements). – Synetech Jul 18 '15 at 21:52
1. this will work if array comes from `explode` so keys are numeric 2. can be seeded with `mt_srand($num);` – Hebe Sep 23 '22 at 19:11

score 17 · Answer 3 · edited Feb 07 '17 at 09:35

17

Use PHP Rand function

<?php
  $input = array("Neo", "Morpheus", "Trinity", "Cypher", "Tank");
  $rand_keys = array_rand($input, 2);
  echo $input[$rand_keys[0]] . "\n";
  echo $input[$rand_keys[1]] . "\n";
?>

More Help

edited Feb 07 '17 at 09:35

Aman Kumar

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answered Dec 23 '13 at 10:54

Naâmèn Mohamed Amine

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Yall are making this more complicated than it has to be... How about this... $to_shuffle = array("Neo", "Morpheus", "Trinity", "Cypher", "Tank"); $shuffled = shuffle($to_shuffle); $shuffled = $shuffled[0]; print_r($shuffled); – Gregory Bowers Jun 30 '20 at 17:33
@GregoryBowers the shuffle function is suppose to return a boolean. so your code won't work. – MusheAbdulHakim Jul 15 '23 at 12:06
Yes, you are right, but this DOES. – Gregory Bowers Jul 18 '23 at 01:00
Don't declare $shuffled, shuffle($array) will apply to the original array. $to_shuffle will return a new shuffled array. So you are correct. This does work though. – Gregory Bowers Jul 18 '23 at 01:08

score 10 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 20 '10 at 15:18

10

use array_rand()

see php manual -> http://php.net/manual/en/function.array-rand.php

answered Nov 20 '10 at 15:18

Christophe

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Get random item from array

4 Answers4

Use PHP Rand function

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