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- Random number generator only generating one random number 9 answers
I'm creating a deck of cards. When I try to shuffle, I am getting some weirdness.
The constructor before calling my program goes through the following loop (pseudo code,inclusive)-
for i in (0,13):
for j in (0,3):
new Card(i,j)
This is the simplified form,anyway. Basically a card with a number and a suit is generated. Now the problem code (C#):
private void Shuffle()
{
List<Card> newList = new List<Card>();
while (cards.Count > 0)
{
Random r = new Random();
int next = r.Next(0,cards.Count);
Console.WriteLine(next);
Card cur = cards.ElementAt(next);
newList.Add(cur);
cards.Remove(cur);
}
this.cards = newList;
}
This gives me semi-predictable output - i.e. the following:
18 18 18 17 17 17 16 16 15 15 15 14 14 14 13 13 13 12 12 12 11 11 11 10 10 10 9 9 9 8 8 8 7 7 7 6 6 6 5 5 5 4 4 3 3 3 1 5 4 3 2 2 1 0
Near the end it seems to break the pattern, but I'm not sure why. Running it again gives me different, but non-random, outputs.
However, if I remove the random declaration to OUTSIDE the loop -
private void Shuffle()
{
List<Card> newList = new List<Card>();
Random r = new Random(); /** THE ONLY DIFFERENT LINE **/
while (cards.Count > 0)
{
int next = r.Next(0,cards.Count);
Console.WriteLine(next);
Card cur = cards.ElementAt(next);
newList.Add(cur);
cards.Remove(cur);
}
this.cards = newList;
}
I get much more random seeming numbers, in this case -
19,28,21,2,16,20,33,26,7,36,31,33,33,26,34,4,18,20,13,27,16,11,18,22,18,21,21,8,22,12,6,17,2,17,0,11,2,14,9,0,8,10,1,7,4,1,0,0,2,1,0,0
This difference seems to disappear when I publish the code from Visual Studio and run the outputted program. I'm confused as to what's going on. Since I have 4 cores, is this distributing the process to 4 cores at the same millisecond, thereby using the same number as its seed? That wouldn't make sense as to why it's working when I publish the code, though...