in reply to Re: random elements from array - new twist
in thread random elements from array - new twist

++ for that! The only problem I can see is if the original array has duplicate information, then that won't work. If however the original array is made up of unique items, then you'd be fine I would think.

There is no emoticon for what I'm feeling now.

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Re: Re: Re: random elements from array - new twist
by Theseus (Pilgrim) on Nov 05, 2002 at 16:57 UTC
    The original poster said he wanted to make sure there were no duplicates returned out of the array, that's what makes the hash perfect for this particular problem. IMHO, anyway...
      It isn't very efficient, though, is it? Every time the loop runs, it has to pick a random number and check/assign the hash key. It could pick the same element several times since the array doesn't change. Also, if for any reason that array was less than five unique elements long you would get an endless loop. SpaceAce