Randomize a List

Question

What is the best way to randomize the order of a generic list in C#? I've got a finite set of 75 numbers in a list I would like to assign a random order to, in order to draw them for a lottery type application.

Answer 1

A simple modification of the accepted answer that returns a new list instead of working in-place, and accepts the more general IEnumerable<T> as many other Linq methods do.

private static Random rng = new Random();

/// <summary>
/// Returns a new list where the elements are randomly shuffled.
/// Based on the Fisher-Yates shuffle, which has O(n) complexity.
/// </summary>
public static IEnumerable<T> Shuffle<T>(this IEnumerable<T> list) {
    var source = list.ToList();
    int n = source.Count;
    var shuffled = new List<T>(n);
    shuffled.AddRange(source);
    while (n > 1) {
        n--;
        int k = rng.Next(n + 1);
        T value = shuffled[k];
        shuffled[k] = shuffled[n];
        shuffled[n] = value;
    }
    return shuffled;
}

Answer 2

Old post for sure, but I just use a GUID.

Items = Items.OrderBy(o => Guid.NewGuid().ToString()).ToList();

A GUID is always unique, and since it is regenerated every time the result changes each time.

Answer 3

Shuffle any (I)List with an extension method based on the Fisher-Yates shuffle:

private static Random rng = new Random();  

public static void Shuffle<T>(this IList<T> list)  
{  
    int n = list.Count;  
    while (n > 1) {  
        n--;  
        int k = rng.Next(n + 1);  
        T value = list[k];  
        list[k] = list[n];  
        list[n] = value;  
    }  
}

Usage:

List<Product> products = GetProducts();
products.Shuffle();

The code above uses the much criticised System.Random method to select swap candidates. It's fast but not as random as it should be. If you need a better quality of randomness in your shuffles use the random number generator in System.Security.Cryptography like so:

using System.Security.Cryptography;
...
public static void Shuffle<T>(this IList<T> list)
{
    RNGCryptoServiceProvider provider = new RNGCryptoServiceProvider();
    int n = list.Count;
    while (n > 1)
    {
        byte[] box = new byte[1];
        do provider.GetBytes(box);
        while (!(box[0] < n * (Byte.MaxValue / n)));
        int k = (box[0] % n);
        n--;
        T value = list[k];
        list[k] = list[n];
        list[n] = value;
    }
}

A simple comparison is available at this blog (WayBack Machine).

Edit: Since writing this answer a couple years back, many people have commented or written to me, to point out the big silly flaw in my comparison. They are of course right. There's nothing wrong with System.Random if it's used in the way it was intended. In my first example above, I instantiate the rng variable inside of the Shuffle method, which is asking for trouble if the method is going to be called repeatedly. Below is a fixed, full example based on a really useful comment received today from @weston here on SO.

Program.cs:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading;

namespace SimpleLottery
{
  class Program
  {
    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
      var numbers = new List<int>(Enumerable.Range(1, 75));
      numbers.Shuffle();
      Console.WriteLine("The winning numbers are: {0}", string.Join(",  ", numbers.GetRange(0, 5)));
    }
  }

  public static class ThreadSafeRandom
  {
      [ThreadStatic] private static Random Local;

      public static Random ThisThreadsRandom
      {
          get { return Local ?? (Local = new Random(unchecked(Environment.TickCount * 31 + Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId))); }
      }
  }

  static class MyExtensions
  {
    public static void Shuffle<T>(this IList<T> list)
    {
      int n = list.Count;
      while (n > 1)
      {
        n--;
        int k = ThreadSafeRandom.ThisThreadsRandom.Next(n + 1);
        T value = list[k];
        list[k] = list[n];
        list[n] = value;
      }
    }
  }
}

Answer 4

EDIT The RemoveAt is a weakness in my previous version. This solution overcomes that.

public static IEnumerable<T> Shuffle<T>(
        this IEnumerable<T> source,
        Random generator = null)
{
    if (generator == null)
    {
        generator = new Random();
    }

    var elements = source.ToArray();
    for (var i = elements.Length - 1; i >= 0; i--)
    {
        var swapIndex = generator.Next(i + 1);
        yield return elements[swapIndex];
        elements[swapIndex] = elements[i];
    }
}

Note the optional Random generator, if the base framework implementation of Random is not thread-safe or cryptographically strong enough for your needs, you can inject your implementation into the operation.

A suitable implementation for a thread-safe cryptographically strong Random implementation can be found in this answer.

---

Here's an idea, extend IList in a (hopefully) efficient way.

public static IEnumerable<T> Shuffle<T>(this IList<T> list)
{
    var choices = Enumerable.Range(0, list.Count).ToList();
    var rng = new Random();
    for(int n = choices.Count; n > 1; n--)
    {
        int k = rng.Next(n);
        yield return list[choices[k]];
        choices.RemoveAt(k);
    }

    yield return list[choices[0]];
}

Answer 5

I usually use:

var list = new List<T> ();
fillList (list);
var randomizedList = new List<T> ();
var rnd = new Random ();
while (list.Count != 0)
{
    var index = rnd.Next (0, list.Count);
    randomizedList.Add (list [index]);
    list.RemoveAt (index);
}

Answer 6

If we only need to shuffle items in a completely random order (just to mix the items in a list), I prefer this simple yet effective code that orders items by guid...

var shuffledcards = cards.OrderBy(a => Guid.NewGuid()).ToList();