System.Random generator = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond);
int[] lotteryNumber = new int[7];
Console.WriteLine("Your lottery numbers: ");
for (int i = 0; i<7; i++)
{
lotteryNumber[i] = generator.Next(1, 37);
Console.Write("{0} ",lotteryNumber[i]);
}
Console.ReadLine();
I need to make a program that prints 7 lottery numbers, but without duplicates. The code above prints 7 random numbers in the range of (1-37), but duplicates appaer. I need a way to prevent duplicate numbers from appearing.
The simplest approach IMO would be to generate a sequence of all the possible numbers (i.e. 1-37), shuffle the collection, then take the first seven results.
Searching on Stack Overflow for "Fisher-Yates shuffle C#" will find lots of examples.
In fact, you could modify the Fisher-Yates shuffle to yield results as you took them, so you could write a method such as:
var numbers = Enumerable.Range(1, 37).Shuffle().Take(7).ToList();
You could take a dictionary but make sure that you prevent duplicate key insertion. Keys of dictionary would serve as the unique numbers you need
You could toss them into a HashSet<int>. If you Add and it returns false, generate a new number.
If you're trying to pick numbers from a range without repetitions, you need to create an array of all the possible numbers and then "shuffle" a random selection out:
int[] allPossibleNumbers = Enumerable.Range(1, 37).ToArray();
int[] lotteryNumber = new int[7];
for (int i = 0; i < 7; i++)
{
int index = r.Next(i, 37);
lotteryNumber[i] = allPossibleNumbers[index];
allPossibleNumbers[index] = allPossibleNumbers[i];
// This step not necessary, but allows you to reuse allPossibleNumbers
// rather than generating a fresh one every time.
// allPossibleNumbers[i] = lotteryNumber[i];
}
Generate a list with your 37 items.
Then in your for, select one and delete the selected
Maybe this could help, if you get the existing number just try to find new one that isn't in the array:
static void Main(string[] args)
{
System.Random generator = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond); int[] lotteryNumber = new int[7];
Console.WriteLine("Your lottery numbers: ");
for (int i = 0; i < 7; i++)
{
int lNumber = 0;
do
{
lNumber = generator.Next(1, 37);
}
while (lotteryNumber.Contains(lNumber));
lotteryNumber[i] = lNumber;
Console.Write("{0} ", lotteryNumber[i]);
}
Console.ReadLine();
}
HashSet<int> set = new HashSet<int>();
System.Random generator = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond);
while(set.Count < 7){
set.Add(generator.Next(1,37);
}
That should work, since a HashSet will automatically ignore duplicates. Just loop until the set reaches the number of units you need. Only potential problem is it has the POTENTIAL (unlikely) to loop for a long time, but it should eventually respond.
so I took your original code...found some logic errors and added the fix you were looking for to prevent random number duplicates.
Enjoy!
System.Random generator = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond);
int[] lotteryNumber = new int[7];
int lowerBounds = 1;
int upperBounds = 8;
int maxNumberLotteryValues = 7;
if ( ( upperBounds - lowerBounds ) < (maxNumberLotteryValues))
{
Console.Write("Warning: Adjust your upper and lower bounds...there are not enough values to create a unique set of Lottery numbers! ");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Your lottery numbers: ");
for (int i = 0; i < maxNumberLotteryValues; i++)
{
int nextNumber = generator.Next(lowerBounds, upperBounds);
int count = lowerBounds; //Prevent infinite loop
while ((lotteryNumber.Contains(nextNumber))
&& (count <= upperBounds))
{
nextNumber = generator.Next(lowerBounds, upperBounds);
count++; //Prevent infinite loop
}
lotteryNumber[i] = nextNumber;
Console.Write("{0} ", lotteryNumber[i]);
}
}
Console.ReadLine();
const int nBalls = 37;
const int nPicks = 6;
int[] balls = new int[nPicks];
Random rnd = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond);
int remainingBalls=nBalls;
int remainingPicks=nPicks;
for (int i = 1; i <= nBalls; i++)
{
if (rnd.Next(1, remainingBalls+1) <= remainingPicks)
balls[--remainingPicks]=i;
remainingBalls--;
}
Console.WriteLine(string.Join(",",balls));
Will outperform Shuffle and HashSet methods as nPicks/nBalls gets larger.
Related
I'm trying to create an array list using random numbers. But sometimes I get a zero in results. I do not understand why.
I'm grateful if anyone can explain.
int[] number = new int[6];
Random rnd = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i < number.Length; i++)
{
int random = rnd.Next(1, 26);
if (!number.Contains(random))
{
number[i] = random;
}
}
foreach (int nr in number)
{
Console.Write("|" + nr + "|");
}
//results
|6||12||0||22||25||11|
int[] number = new int[6];
Here number array is created with default int value i.e 0
The issue with your code is in some cases this value is not getting updated due to the check
if (!number.Contains(random))
You can change your code to include a loop to guarantee your random number doesn't lie in the array.
int[] number = new int[6];
Random rnd = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i < number.Length; i++)
{
int random = rnd.Next(1, 26);
while (number.Contains(random))
{
random = rnd.Next(1, 26);
}
number[i] = random;
}
foreach (int nr in number)
{
Console.Write("|" + nr + "|");
}
Please note that current approach is quite performance hungry as for every new random value we are iterating through entire array everytime to check if it exists. You can reduce the performance by using as HashSet<int> if possible
When you declare the array in following statement it initializes with 6 integers as 0
int[] number = new int[6];
While the random number generated for each array element, check for duplication in following statement may have resulted false
if (!number.Contains(random))
That's why it was never updated to new assigned number.
You can add else condition to it and regenerate random number
Just use your debugger to step through your code and inspect your variables to see what's happening. Apart from all the suggestions here, which are bad because they can loop way too many times or even forever, you appear to want to get 6 random, unique numbers between 1 and 26.
The de facto way to do that, is to generate a list with those numbers (Enumerable.Range()), shuffle them (Fisher-Yates) and Take() the first six.
Use while loop.
int[] number = new int[6];
Random rnd = new Random();
int i = 0;
while (i < number.Length)
{
int random = rnd.Next(1, 26);
if (!number.Contains(random))
{
number[i] = random;
i++;
}
}
foreach (int nr in number)
{
Console.Write("|" + nr + "|");
}
This question already has answers here:
Generating random, unique values C#
(17 answers)
Closed 4 years ago.
I want to generate random numbers and put them in an array, but they should only appear once in this array. It's like a mini lotto game.
This is the code I have right now:
int[] arrA = new int[10];
Random random = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i <= arrA.Length -1; i++)
{
arrA[i] = random.Next(1, 15);
Console.WriteLine(arrA[i]);
}
Console.ReadKey();
Random numbers are generated and put in this Array. I only need to know how it's possible to program that they only appeare once.
Use HashSet<T>. A set is a collection that contains no duplicate elements, and whose elements are in no particular order.
Something like this:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
HashSet<int> numbers = new HashSet<int>();
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
// Start with a random number
//
int value = random.Next(1,15);
// Check whether you already have that number
// Keep trying until you get a unique
//
while (numbers.Contains(value)) {
value = random.Next(1,15);
}
// Add the unique number to the set
numbers.Add(value);
}
foreach (int i in numbers)
{
Console.Write(" {0}", i);
}
int[] arrA = new int[10];
Random random = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i <= arrA.Length - 1; i++)
{
var number = random.Next(1, 15);
while (arrA.Any(n => n == number))
{
number = random.Next(1, 15);
}
arrA[i] = number;
Console.WriteLine(arrA[i]);
}
Console.ReadKey();
Everytime you generate a new number, instead of putting it in the array right away check the array from the start to the current position (using a for-loop). If it's not there insert the generated number, otherwise generate a new one and repeat the process.
I feel like this task should not be done this way...
My sequenceY length is not equal to number of steam numbers because you can't assign int[] length with int that have 0 as a starting value.
Therefore my sequenceY have a lot of 0 inside and I can't print the whole sequence. I even tried adding this after for loop:
sequenceY = new int[steamnumbercounter];
But it didn't work ... Why ?
My other question is how do programmers deal with sequences that have unknown length?
I managed to print only steam numbers but the task says print sequenceY not only part of it.
// 4. sequenceX[20] is made of random numbers from 1 to 30 ,
// sequenceY is made of steam numbers from sequenceX. Print sequneceY.
int[] nizx = new int[20];
int[] nizy = new int[20];
int n = 0;
int steamnumbercounter = 0;
Random rnd = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i < nizx.Length; i++)
{
nizx[i] = rnd.Next(1, 30);
if (nizx[i]%2==0)
{
nizy[n] = nizx[i];
n++;
steamnumbercounter++;
}
Console.Write("{0} , ", nizx[i]);
}
for (int i = 0; i < steamnumbercounter; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} , ",nizy[i]);
}
Partial code review along with an answer.
But it didn't work ... Why ?
That code didn't work because you're reassigning sequenceY to a completely new value.
My other question is how do programmers deal with sequences that have unknown length?
So, with that known we can do a few things here: create an array and use Array.Resize, use a List<T>, fill the initial array then swap it for one of the right size which is filled.
I'm going to assume a "steam" number is an even one.
Your naming is not good: nizx and nizy don't convey the meaning or line up with the problem.
I'm going to demonstrate the last option (since you stated that you don't know how to use many of the moderately complex parts of .NET in this class yet, which is fine): fill the initial array and swap it for a new one. This will run in O(n^2) time (sorta).
So, let's start with our source array.
int[] sequenceX = new int[20];
Next we'll define our destination array to be the same size as our source array. (This is the maximum number of values that could be stored in it, we'll shrink it later.)
int[] sequenceY = new int[sequenceX.Length];
Then we need a variable to hold how many numbers we found that meet our criteria:
int steamNumbers = 0;
And lastly, our Random.
Random random = new Random();
Then, we look through all our sequenceX as you did, but we'll update the logic a bit.
for (int i = 0; i < sequenceX.Length; i++)
{
sequenceX[i] = random.Next(1, 30);
if (sequenceX[i] % 2 == 0)
{
sequenceY[steamNumbers] = sequenceX[i];
steamNumbers++;
}
}
So our code looks almost the same as yours, but we have one more thing to do: since you only want sequenceY to contain steamNumbers we have to shrink it or something.
int[] tempSequenceY = sequenceY;
sequenceY = new int[steamNumbers];
for (int i = 0; i < steamNumbers; i++)
{
sequenceY[i] = tempSequenceY[i];
}
Now sequenceY only has your steam numbers in it.
Final code:
int[] sequenceX = new int[20];
int[] sequenceY = new int[sequenceX.Length];
int steamNumbers = 0;
Random random = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i < sequenceX.Length; i++)
{
sequenceX[i] = random.Next(1, 30);
if (sequenceX[i] % 2 == 0)
{
sequenceY[steamNumbers] = sequenceX[i];
steamNumbers++;
}
}
int[] tempSequenceY = sequenceY;
sequenceY = new int[steamNumbers];
for (int i = 0; i < steamNumbers; i++)
{
sequenceY[i] = tempSequenceY[i];
}
// Print your `sequenceY` here.
You could extract this to a method pretty easily as well:
public int[] GetSteamNumbers(int sequenceCount, int randomMinimum, int randomMaximum)
{
int[] sequenceX = new int[sequenceCount];
int[] sequenceY = new int[sequenceX.Length];
int steamNumbers = 0;
Random random = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i < sequenceX.Length; i++)
{
sequenceX[i] = random.Next(randomMinimum, randomMaximum);
if (sequenceX[i] % 2 == 0)
{
sequenceY[steamNumbers] = sequenceX[i];
steamNumbers++;
}
}
int[] tempSequenceY = sequenceY;
sequenceY = new int[steamNumbers];
for (int i = 0; i < steamNumbers; i++)
{
sequenceY[i] = tempSequenceY[i];
}
return sequenceY;
}
And then call it with:
int[] steamNumbers = GetSteamNumbers(20, 1, 30);
Of course, for the more advanced users (this doesn't help you, but it may help others) we can do something as follows using LINQ:
var random = new Random();
var sequenceY = Enumerable.Range(1, 20)
.Select(x => random.Next(1, 30))
.Where(x => x % 2 == 0)
.ToArray();
Which should have the same effect. (Just demonstrating that there are still things in C# to look forward to in the future.)
Disclaimer: I wrote this entire answer outside of the IDE and without actually compiling it, I make no guarantees to the accuracy of the code but the procedure itself should be fairly straight forward.
The thing with arrays in C# is that they are of fixed size.
You'll have to iterate through and re-create it or use a IEnumerable that has dynamic sizes, such as Lists.
Solution here would be to use a List that contains your integers and then you would use nizx.Add(rnd.Next(1, 30));
Elaborating on my comment above: You can create a 'fake' list by concatenating the values you need in a string, separated by commas. The string.Split(',') will give you the resulting array that you need.
Given a string of form "a,b,c,d" string.Split(',') will create the array ["a","b,"c","d"]. The code:
{
int[] nizx = new int[20];
string numberString = string.Empty;
int n = 0;
Random rnd = new Random();
for (int i = 0; i < nizx.Length; i++)
{
nizx[i] = rnd.Next(1, 30);
if (nizx[i] % 2 == 0)
{
numberString += nizx[i] + ",";
n++;
}
}
var numberArray = numberString.Split(',');
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++)
{
Console.WriteLine("{0} , ", numberArray[i]);
}
}
I'm trying to generate random arrays to test my homework assignments.
The Problem is that the numbers generated are always unique , and I need some repeating numbers from time to time.
Here is the code I came up with:
static int[] RandomIntArray()
{
Random rnd = new Random();
Console.Write("Enter array Length: ");
int n = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
int[] arr = new int[n];
for (int i = 0; i < arr.Length; i++)
{
arr[i] = rnd.Next(short.MinValue, short.MaxValue);
}
return arr;
}
You can seed a random number generator, so it will always produce the same random sequence:
Random rnd = new Random(1/* Any seed value you want in here */);
If you want to force some repeating numbers, you could so something like this:
static int[] RandomIntArray()
{
Random rnd = new Random();
Console.Write("Enter array Length: ");
int n = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());
int[] arr = new int[n];
for (int i = 0; i < arr.Length; i++)
{
if(i > 0 && rnd.Next(10) == 1) // a 1 in 10 chance of a dupe
{
arr[i] = arr[i-1];
}
else
arr[i] = rnd.Next(short.MinValue, short.MaxValue);
}
return arr;
}
If you want numbers to repeat once in a while, make the range smaller. They'll be more likely to result in duplicates.
arr[i] = rnd.Next(0, 10);
How often you want repeated numbers will dictate what approach you use. You could always round the random numbers you get to the nearest 10, 100, whatever until the "bins" are big enough that the "bins" show up as often as you want. This is similar to making the range smaller as suggested by #DLeh, but it allows you to spread the generated numbers over a larger range.
If you initialized random with same seed, you will get same sequence of numbers all the time
Random rnd1 = new Random(5);
Random rnd2 = new Random(5);
for(var i=0;i<10; i++){
Console.WriteLine(rnd1.Next() + ", " + rnd2.Next());
}
I'm trying to create a method that produces 10 unique random numbers, but the numbers are not unique, I get several duplicates! How can I improve the code to work as I want?
int[] randomNumbers = new int[10];
Random random = new Random();
int index = 0;
do
{
int randomNum = random.Next(0, 10);
if (index == 0)
{
randomNumbers[0] = randomNum;
index++;
}
else
{
for (int i = 0; i < randomNumbers.Length; i++)
{
if (randomNumbers[i] == randomNum)
break;
else
{
randomNumbers[index] = randomNum;
index++;
break;
}
}
}
}
while (index <= 9);
foreach (int num in randomNumbers)
System.Console.Write(num + " ");
EDIT 2: I have corrected all errors now, but this code isn't working becuase the numbers are not unique! I have updated my code above to the latest version. I preciate some help to solve this! Thanks!
The simplest way to have this is to have an array of the numbers you want (i.e. 1-10) and use a random shuffling algorithm.
The Fisher-Yates shuffle is the easiest way to do this.
EDIT:
Here's a link to a C# implementation: http://www.dotnetperls.com/fisher-yates-shuffle
random.next(0, 10) returns a random number between 0 and 10. It can happen, that it returns the same number multiple times in a row and it is not guaranteed, that you get every number between 0 and 10 exactly one time, when you call it 10 times.
What you want is a list of numbers, every number is unique, between 0 and 9 (or 1 and 10). A possible solution to this would be something like this:
//Create the list of numbers you want
var list = new List<int>();
for(var x = 0; x < 10; x++)
{
list.Add(x);
}
var random = new Random();
//Prepare randomized list
var randomizedList = new List<int>();
while(list.Length > 0)
{
//Pick random index in the range of the ordered list
var index = random.Next(0, list.Length);
//Put the number from the random index in the randomized list
randomizedList.Add(list[index]);
//Remove the number from the original list
list.RemoveAt(index);
}
Explained in words, this is what you do:
Create the list with all the numbers, that your final list should contain
Create a second empty list.
Enter a loop. The loop continues, as long as the ordered list still has numbers in it.
Pick a random index between 0 and list.Length
Put this random number in the randomized list
Remove the item at the index position from the ordered list.
Like this you create the set of numbers you want to have in your randomized list and then always pick a random entry from the ordered list. With this technique, you can also achieve, that certain values occur multiple time in the list.
I'm not sure if my code compiles against c#, as I currently do not have visual studio running here, but I think the code should be mostly correct.
Something like this?
const int maxNumbers = 10;
List<int> numbers = new List<int>(maxNumbers);
for (int i = 0; i < maxNumbers; i++)
{
numbers.Add(i);
}
Random r = new Random();
while (numbers.Count > 0)
{
int index = r.Next(numbers.Count);
Console.Write("{0} ", numbers[index]);
numbers.RemoveAt(index);
}
Console.WriteLine();
Edit: For any random numbers:
const int maxNumbers = 10;
const int biggestNumbers = 10000;
List<int> numbers = new List<int>(maxNumbers);
Random r = new Random();
while (numbers.Count < maxNumbers)
{
int index = r.Next(biggestNumbers);
if (numbers.IndexOf(index) < 0)
{
numbers.Add(index);
Console.Write("{0} ", index);
}
}
Console.WriteLine();