Shuffling a List in Dart

So you have a list in your Dart code, and now you want to shuffle its elements. Maybe you're building a game, implementing a feature for randomized content display, or simply need to reorganize the data. Whatever the reason, Dart makes it relatively straightforward to shuffle a list. In this article, we will dive into two different methods for shuffling a list in Dart and provide examples for each approach.

Using the shuffle Method

Dart provides a built-in shuffle method that's part of the List class. This method is the simplest way to reorder the elements within a list. When called, it changes the order of elements within the original list.

Here's a basic example demonstrating the usage of the shuffle method:

Copycopy code to clipboard
1void main() {
2  var myList = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
3  myList.shuffle();
4  print(myList); // Output will be a shuffled version of the original list
5}

In this example, the shuffle method is invoked on the list myList, resulting in a shuffled arrangement of its elements.

Custom Shuffle Function

You can also create a custom function to shuffle a list. This approach allows you to tailor the shuffling logic according to your specific requirements.

Here's an example of a custom shuffle function in Dart:

Copycopy code to clipboard
1import 'dart:math';
2
3List<T> customShuffle<T>(List<T> items) {
4  var random = Random();
5  for (var i = items.length - 1; i > 0; i--) {
6    var j = random.nextInt(i + 1);
7    var temp = items[i];
8    items[i] = items[j];
9    items[j] = temp;
10  }
11  return items;
12}
13
14void main() {
15  var myList = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
16  print(customShuffle(myList)); // Output will be a shuffled version of the original list
17}

In this example, the customShuffle function takes a list as input and returns a shuffled version of the original list.