Shuffle an array with python, randomize array item order with python

Question

What's the easiest way to shuffle an array with python?

Answer 1

import random
random.shuffle(array)

Answer 2

import random
random.shuffle(array)

Answer 3

Alternative way to do this using sklearn

from sklearn.utils import shuffle
X=[1,2,3]
y = ['one', 'two', 'three']
X, y = shuffle(X, y, random_state=0)
print(X)
print(y)

Output:

[2, 1, 3]
['two', 'one', 'three']

Advantage: You can random multiple arrays simultaneously without disrupting the mapping. And 'random_state' can control the shuffling for reproducible behavior.

Answer 4

The other answers are the easiest, however it's a bit annoying that the random.shuffle method doesn't actually return anything - it just sorts the given list. If you want to chain calls or just be able to declare a shuffled array in one line you can do:

    import random
    def my_shuffle(array):
        random.shuffle(array)
        return array

Then you can do lines like:

    for suit in my_shuffle(['hearts', 'spades', 'clubs', 'diamonds']):

Answer 5

When dealing with regular Python lists, random.shuffle() will do the job just as the previous answers show.

But when it come to ndarray(numpy.array), random.shuffle seems to break the original ndarray. Here is an example:

import random
import numpy as np
import numpy.random

a = np.array([1,2,3,4,5,6])
a.shape = (3,2)
print a
random.shuffle(a) # a will definitely be destroyed
print a

Just use: np.random.shuffle(a)

Like random.shuffle, np.random.shuffle shuffles the array in-place.

Answer 6

Just in case you want a new array you can use sample:

import random
new_array = random.sample( array, len(array) )

Answer 7

You can sort your array with random key

sorted(array, key = lambda x: random.random())

but look like random.shuffle(array) will be faster since it written in C

Answer 8

In addition to the previous replies, I would like to introduce another function.

numpy.random.shuffle as well as random.shuffle perform in-place shuffling. However, if you want to return a shuffled array numpy.random.permutation is the function to use.

Answer 9

I don't know I used random.shuffle() but it return 'None' to me, so I wrote this, might helpful to someone

def shuffle(arr):
    for n in range(len(arr) - 1):
        rnd = random.randint(0, (len(arr) - 1))
        val1 = arr[rnd]
        val2 = arr[rnd - 1]

        arr[rnd - 1] = val1
        arr[rnd] = val2

    return arr

Answer 10

# arr = numpy array to shuffle

def shuffle(arr):
    a = numpy.arange(len(arr))
    b = numpy.empty(1)
    for i in range(len(arr)):
        sel = numpy.random.random_integers(0, high=len(a)-1, size=1)
        b = numpy.append(b, a[sel])
        a = numpy.delete(a, sel)
    b = b[1:].astype(int)
    return arr[b]