simple-statistics/src/shuffle_in_place.js

Simple Statistics

/**
 * A [Fisher-Yates shuffle](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher%E2%80%93Yates_shuffle)
 * in-place - which means that it **will change the order of the original
 * array by reference**.
 *
 * This is an algorithm that generates a random [permutation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permutation)
 * of a set.
 *
 * @param {Array} x sample of one or more numbers
 * @param {Function} [randomSource=Math.random] an optional entropy source that
 * returns numbers between 0 inclusive and 1 exclusive: the range [0, 1)
 * @returns {Array} x
 * @example
 * var x = [1, 2, 3, 4];
 * shuffleInPlace(x);
 * // x is shuffled to a value like [2, 1, 4, 3]
 */
function shuffleInPlace(x, randomSource) {
    // a custom random number source can be provided if you want to use
    // a fixed seed or another random number generator, like
    // [random-js](https://www.npmjs.org/package/random-js)
    randomSource = randomSource || Math.random;

    // store the current length of the x to determine
    // when no elements remain to shuffle.
    let length = x.length;

    // temporary is used to hold an item when it is being
    // swapped between indices.
    let temporary;

    // The index to swap at each stage.
    let index;

    // While there are still items to shuffle
    while (length > 0) {
        // choose a random index within the subset of the array
        // that is not yet shuffled
        index = Math.floor(randomSource() * length--);

        // store the value that we'll move temporarily
        temporary = x[length];

        // swap the value at `x[length]` with `x[index]`
        x[length] = x[index];
        x[index] = temporary;
    }

    return x;
}

export default shuffleInPlace;