HOW TO: Randomize/Shuffle an array in Flash (AS2)

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HOW TO: Randomize/Shuffle an array in Flash (AS2)

January 30, 2010

I was creating a logo scroller in flash when a client of mine asked me if the logo’s could show up in a random order. This lead me to look to see if Actionscript 2.0 has a built in function to randomize an array. Well, I didn’t find a built in funciton, but i found a great blog entry describing how to build you own. The following code snippets come from:

http://mrsteel.wordpress.com/2007/06/15/randomize-array-shuffle-an-array-in-flash/

Prototype function and return function code is :

Code

Array.prototype.mixElements = function() {
 var _length:Number = this.length, rn:Number, it:Number, el:Object;
 for (it = 0; it<_length; it++) {
 el = this[it];
 this[it] = this[rn = random(_length)];
 this[rn] = el;
 }
}

Code

function mixArray(array:Array):Array {
 var _length:Number = array.length, mixed:Array = array.slice(), rn:Number, it:Number, el:Object;
 for (it = 0; it<_length; it++) {
 el = mixed[it];
 mixed[it] = mixed[rn = random(_length)];
 mixed[rn] = el;
 }
 return mixed;
 }