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An array or an java.util.list contains a sorted list of values. Shuffling an array or a list means that you are randomly re-arranging the content of that structure. Have you wondered how you could shuffle an array or a list without the collection framework? This article demonstrates how the shuffling works so that you can learn how the standard libraries might do this.

The approach works independent of the content of the array or the list.

The shuffle is random as the algorithm by selecting uniformly en element which has not been selected. For example if the element at position 2 is selected it can be exchanged with all elements at position 2 until position n-1 (as the list /array has 0 - n-1 positions).

Create a Java project "de.vogella.algorithms.shuffle".

Create the following program for sorting arrays.

			
package de.vogella.algorithms.shuffle;

import java.util.Random;

public class ShuffleArray {
	public static void shuffleArray(int[] a) {
		int n = a.length;
		Random random = new Random();
		random.nextInt();
		for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
			int change = i + random.nextInt(n - i);
			swap(a, i, change);
		}
	}

	private static void swap(int[] a, int i, int change) {
		int helper = a[i];
		a[i] = a[change];
		a[change] = helper;
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		int[] a = new int[] { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 };
		shuffleArray(a);
		for (int i : a) {
			System.out.println(i);
		}
	}
}

		

Create the following program for sorting list.

			
package de.vogella.algorithms.shuffle;

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Random;

public class ShuffleList {
	public static void shuffleList(List<Integer> a) {
		int n = a.size();
		Random random = new Random();
		random.nextInt();
		for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
			int change = i + random.nextInt(n - i);
			swap(a, i, change);
		}
	}

	private static void swap(List<Integer> a, int i, int change) {
		int helper = a.get(i);
		a.set(i, a.get(change));
		a.set(change, helper);
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<Integer>();
		list.add(1);
		list.add(2);
		list.add(3);
		list.add(4);
		list.add(5);
		list.add(6);
		list.add(7);
		shuffleList(list);
		for (int i : list) {
			System.out.println(i);
		}
	}
}

		

Why does this shuffle all values randomly? The value at position 0 is exchanged with a randomly selected value (including the original value at position 0). This means that after the first loop position 0 has a random value with an equal likelihood of any value. We continue this with position 1 but we do not need to consider position 0 again as this position already has a random value assigned. After the loop it is equally likely that any value is at any position.

Thank you for practicing with this tutorial.

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