Pick a random element from an array
Swift 4.2 and above
The new recommended approach is a built-in method on the Collection protocol: randomElement()
. It returns an optional to avoid the empty case I assumed against previously.
let array = ["Frodo", "Sam", "Wise", "Gamgee"]print(array.randomElement()!) // Using ! knowing I have array.count > 0
If you don't create the array and aren't guaranteed count > 0, you should do something like:
if let randomElement = array.randomElement() { print(randomElement)}
Swift 4.1 and below
Just to answer your question, you can do this to achieve random array selection:
let array = ["Frodo", "sam", "wise", "gamgee"]let randomIndex = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(array.count)))print(array[randomIndex])
The castings are ugly, but I believe they're required unless someone else has another way.
Riffing on what Lucas said, you could create an extension to the Array class like this:
extension Array { func randomItem() -> Element? { if isEmpty { return nil } let index = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(self.count))) return self[index] }}
For example:
let myArray = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16]let myItem = myArray.randomItem() // Note: myItem is an Optional<Int>