shuffle(): Randomize the order of the elements fo array

shuffle($input_array);

Example

$my_array=array(0,1,2,3,4,5,6);
shuffle($my_array);
foreach ($my_array as $element) {
    echo $element . "  ";
}

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Example

$my_array=array('One','Two','Three','Four','Five');
shuffle($my_array);
echo "<br><br>";
while (list ($key, $val) = each ($my_array)) {
echo "$key -> $val <br>";
}

0 -> Two 
1 -> Five 
2 -> Three 
3 -> Four 
4 -> One 

Example with Literal Keys

$my_array=array('Fruits1' =>'Banana','Fruits2'=>'Mango','Fruits3'=>'Apple','Fruits4'=>'Grapes');
shuffle($my_array);
while (list ($key, $val) = each ($my_array)) {
echo "$key -> $val <br>";
}

0 -> Mango 
1 -> Apple 
2 -> Banana 
3 -> Grapes 

Example with Multidimensional Aarray

$my_array=array(array("path"=>"php_tutorial","section"=>"php"),
array("path"=>"sql_tutorial","section"=>"sql"),
array("path"=>"javascript_tutorial","section"=>"js"),
array("path"=>"html_tutorial","section"=>"html"),
);
shuffle($my_array);
$max=sizeof($my_array);
for($i=0; $i<$max; $i++) { 

while (list ($key, $val) = each ($my_array[$i])) { 
echo "$key -> $val <br>"; 
} // inner array while loop

} // outer array for loop

path -> javascript_tutorial 
section -> js 
path -> sql_tutorial 
section -> sql 
path -> php_tutorial 
section -> php 
path -> html_tutorial 
section -> html

Using range with shuffle

$my_array=range(0,10);
shuffle($my_array);
foreach ($my_array as $element) {
    echo $element . "  ";
}

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Subhendu Mohapatra

Author

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