Picking a random element from a set
JavaAlgorithmLanguage AgnosticRandomSetJava Problem Overview
How do I pick a random element from a set? I'm particularly interested in picking a random element from a HashSet or a LinkedHashSet, in Java. Solutions for other languages are also welcome.
Java Solutions
Solution 1 - Java
int size = myHashSet.size();
int item = new Random().nextInt(size); // In real life, the Random object should be rather more shared than this
int i = 0;
for(Object obj : myhashSet)
{
if (i == item)
return obj;
i++;
}
Solution 2 - Java
A somewhat related Did You Know:
There are useful methods in java.util.Collections
for shuffling whole collections: Collections.shuffle(List<?>)
and Collections.shuffle(List<?> list, Random rnd)
.
Solution 3 - Java
Fast solution for Java using an ArrayList
and a HashMap
: [element -> index].
Motivation: I needed a set of items with RandomAccess
properties, especially to pick a random item from the set (see pollRandom
method). Random navigation in a binary tree is not accurate: trees are not perfectly balanced, which would not lead to a uniform distribution.
public class RandomSet<E> extends AbstractSet<E> {
List<E> dta = new ArrayList<E>();
Map<E, Integer> idx = new HashMap<E, Integer>();
public RandomSet() {
}
public RandomSet(Collection<E> items) {
for (E item : items) {
idx.put(item, dta.size());
dta.add(item);
}
}
@Override
public boolean add(E item) {
if (idx.containsKey(item)) {
return false;
}
idx.put(item, dta.size());
dta.add(item);
return true;
}
/**
* Override element at position <code>id</code> with last element.
* @param id
*/
public E removeAt(int id) {
if (id >= dta.size()) {
return null;
}
E res = dta.get(id);
idx.remove(res);
E last = dta.remove(dta.size() - 1);
// skip filling the hole if last is removed
if (id < dta.size()) {
idx.put(last, id);
dta.set(id, last);
}
return res;
}
@Override
public boolean remove(Object item) {
@SuppressWarnings(value = "element-type-mismatch")
Integer id = idx.get(item);
if (id == null) {
return false;
}
removeAt(id);
return true;
}
public E get(int i) {
return dta.get(i);
}
public E pollRandom(Random rnd) {
if (dta.isEmpty()) {
return null;
}
int id = rnd.nextInt(dta.size());
return removeAt(id);
}
@Override
public int size() {
return dta.size();
}
@Override
public Iterator<E> iterator() {
return dta.iterator();
}
}
Solution 4 - Java
In Java 8:
static <E> E getRandomSetElement(Set<E> set) {
return set.stream().skip(new Random().nextInt(set.size())).findFirst().orElse(null);
}
Solution 5 - Java
This is faster than the for-each loop in the accepted answer:
int index = rand.nextInt(set.size());
Iterator<Object> iter = set.iterator();
for (int i = 0; i < index; i++) {
iter.next();
}
return iter.next();
The for-each construct calls Iterator.hasNext()
on every loop, but since index < set.size()
, that check is unnecessary overhead. I saw a 10-20% boost in speed, but YMMV. (Also, this compiles without having to add an extra return statement.)
Note that this code (and most other answers) can be applied to any Collection, not just Set. In generic method form:
public static <E> E choice(Collection<? extends E> coll, Random rand) {
if (coll.size() == 0) {
return null; // or throw IAE, if you prefer
}
int index = rand.nextInt(coll.size());
if (coll instanceof List) { // optimization
return ((List<? extends E>) coll).get(index);
} else {
Iterator<? extends E> iter = coll.iterator();
for (int i = 0; i < index; i++) {
iter.next();
}
return iter.next();
}
}
Solution 6 - Java
If you want to do it in Java, you should consider copying the elements into some kind of random-access collection (such as an ArrayList). Because, unless your set is small, accessing the selected element will be expensive (O(n) instead of O(1)). [ed: list copy is also O(n)]
Alternatively, you could look for another Set implementation that more closely matches your requirements. The ListOrderedSet from Commons Collections looks promising.
Solution 7 - Java
In Java:
Set<Integer> set = new LinkedHashSet<Integer>(3);
set.add(1);
set.add(2);
set.add(3);
Random rand = new Random(System.currentTimeMillis());
int[] setArray = (int[]) set.toArray();
for (int i = 0; i < 10; ++i) {
System.out.println(setArray[rand.nextInt(set.size())]);
}
Solution 8 - Java
List asList = new ArrayList(mySet);
Collections.shuffle(asList);
return asList.get(0);
Solution 9 - Java
This is identical to accepted answer (Khoth), but with the unnecessary size
and i
variables removed.
int random = new Random().nextInt(myhashSet.size());
for(Object obj : myhashSet) {
if (random-- == 0) {
return obj;
}
}
Though doing away with the two aforementioned variables, the above solution still remains random because we are relying upon random (starting at a randomly selected index) to decrement itself toward 0
over each iteration.
Solution 10 - Java
Clojure solution:
(defn pick-random [set] (let [sq (seq set)] (nth sq (rand-int (count sq)))))
Solution 11 - Java
Perl 5
@hash_keys = (keys %hash);
$rand = int(rand(@hash_keys));
print $hash{$hash_keys[$rand]};
Here is one way to do it.
Solution 12 - Java
C++. This should be reasonably quick, as it doesn't require iterating over the whole set, or sorting it. This should work out of the box with most modern compilers, assuming they support tr1. If not, you may need to use Boost.
The Boost docs are helpful here to explain this, even if you don't use Boost.
The trick is to make use of the fact that the data has been divided into buckets, and to quickly identify a randomly chosen bucket (with the appropriate probability).
//#include <boost/unordered_set.hpp>
//using namespace boost;
#include <tr1/unordered_set>
using namespace std::tr1;
#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <assert.h>
using namespace std;
int main() {
unordered_set<int> u;
u.max_load_factor(40);
for (int i=0; i<40; i++) {
u.insert(i);
cout << ' ' << i;
}
cout << endl;
cout << "Number of buckets: " << u.bucket_count() << endl;
for(size_t b=0; b<u.bucket_count(); b++)
cout << "Bucket " << b << " has " << u.bucket_size(b) << " elements. " << endl;
for(size_t i=0; i<20; i++) {
size_t x = rand() % u.size();
cout << "we'll quickly get the " << x << "th item in the unordered set. ";
size_t b;
for(b=0; b<u.bucket_count(); b++) {
if(x < u.bucket_size(b)) {
break;
} else
x -= u.bucket_size(b);
}
cout << "it'll be in the " << b << "th bucket at offset " << x << ". ";
unordered_set<int>::const_local_iterator l = u.begin(b);
while(x>0) {
l++;
assert(l!=u.end(b));
x--;
}
cout << "random item is " << *l << ". ";
cout << endl;
}
}
Solution 13 - Java
Solution above speak in terms of latency but doesn't guarantee equal probability of each index being selected.
If that needs to be considered, try reservoir sampling. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservoir_sampling>.<br/> Collections.shuffle() (as suggested by few) uses one such algorithm.
Solution 14 - Java
Since you said "Solutions for other languages are also welcome", here's the version for Python:
>>> import random
>>> random.choice([1,2,3,4,5,6])
3
>>> random.choice([1,2,3,4,5,6])
4
Solution 15 - Java
Can't you just get the size/length of the set/array, generate a random number between 0 and the size/length, then call the element whose index matches that number? HashSet has a .size() method, I'm pretty sure.
In psuedocode -
function randFromSet(target){
var targetLength:uint = target.length()
var randomIndex:uint = random(0,targetLength);
return target[randomIndex];
}
Solution 16 - Java
PHP, assuming "set" is an array:
$foo = array("alpha", "bravo", "charlie");
$index = array_rand($foo);
$val = $foo[$index];
The Mersenne Twister functions are better but there's no MT equivalent of array_rand in PHP.
Solution 17 - Java
Javascript solution ;)
function choose (set) {
return set[Math.floor(Math.random() * set.length)];
}
var set = [1, 2, 3, 4], rand = choose (set);
Or alternatively:
Array.prototype.choose = function () {
return this[Math.floor(Math.random() * this.length)];
};
[1, 2, 3, 4].choose();
Solution 18 - Java
Icon has a set type and a random-element operator, unary "?", so the expression
? set( [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] )
will produce a random number between 1 and 5.
The random seed is initialized to 0 when a program is run, so to produce different results on each run use randomize()
Solution 19 - Java
In C#
Random random = new Random((int)DateTime.Now.Ticks);
OrderedDictionary od = new OrderedDictionary();
od.Add("abc", 1);
od.Add("def", 2);
od.Add("ghi", 3);
od.Add("jkl", 4);
int randomIndex = random.Next(od.Count);
Console.WriteLine(od[randomIndex]);
// Can access via index or key value:
Console.WriteLine(od[1]);
Console.WriteLine(od["def"]);
Solution 20 - Java
In lisp
(defun pick-random (set)
(nth (random (length set)) set))
Solution 21 - Java
In Mathematica:
a = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
a[[ ⌈ Length[a] Random[] ⌉ ]]
Or, in recent versions, simply:
RandomChoice[a]
This received a down-vote, perhaps because it lacks explanation, so here one is:
Random[]
generates a pseudorandom float between 0 and 1. This is multiplied by the length of the list and then the ceiling function is used to round up to the next integer. This index is then extracted from a
.
Since hash table functionality is frequently done with rules in Mathematica, and rules are stored in lists, one might use:
a = {"Badger" -> 5, "Bird" -> 1, "Fox" -> 3, "Frog" -> 2, "Wolf" -> 4};
Solution 22 - Java
How about just
public static <A> A getRandomElement(Collection<A> c, Random r) {
return new ArrayList<A>(c).get(r.nextInt(c.size()));
}
Solution 23 - Java
For fun I wrote a RandomHashSet based on rejection sampling. It's a bit hacky, since HashMap doesn't let us access it's table directly, but it should work just fine.
It doesn't use any extra memory, and lookup time is O(1) amortized. (Because java HashTable is dense).
class RandomHashSet<V> extends AbstractSet<V> {
private Map<Object,V> map = new HashMap<>();
public boolean add(V v) {
return map.put(new WrapKey<V>(v),v) == null;
}
@Override
public Iterator<V> iterator() {
return new Iterator<V>() {
RandKey key = new RandKey();
@Override public boolean hasNext() {
return true;
}
@Override public V next() {
while (true) {
key.next();
V v = map.get(key);
if (v != null)
return v;
}
}
@Override public void remove() {
throw new NotImplementedException();
}
};
}
@Override
public int size() {
return map.size();
}
static class WrapKey<V> {
private V v;
WrapKey(V v) {
this.v = v;
}
@Override public int hashCode() {
return v.hashCode();
}
@Override public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (o instanceof RandKey)
return true;
return v.equals(o);
}
}
static class RandKey {
private Random rand = new Random();
int key = rand.nextInt();
public void next() {
key = rand.nextInt();
}
@Override public int hashCode() {
return key;
}
@Override public boolean equals(Object o) {
return true;
}
}
}
Solution 24 - Java
The easiest with Java 8 is:
outbound.stream().skip(n % outbound.size()).findFirst().get()
where n
is a random integer. Of course it is of less performance than that with the for(elem: Col)
Solution 25 - Java
With Guava we can do a little better than Khoth's answer:
public static E random(Set<E> set) {
int index = random.nextInt(set.size();
if (set instanceof ImmutableSet) {
// ImmutableSet.asList() is O(1), as is .get() on the returned list
return set.asList().get(index);
}
return Iterables.get(set, index);
}
Solution 26 - Java
Java 8+ Stream:
static <E> Optional<E> getRandomElement(Collection<E> collection) {
return collection
.stream()
.skip(ThreadLocalRandom.current()
.nextInt(collection.size()))
.findAny();
}
Based on the answer of Joshua Bone but with slight changes:
- Ignores the Streams element order for a slight performance increase in parallel operations
- Uses the current thread's ThreadLocalRandom
- Accepts any Collection type as input
- Returns the provided Optional instead of null
Solution 27 - Java
PHP, using MT:
$items_array = array("alpha", "bravo", "charlie");
$last_pos = count($items_array) - 1;
$random_pos = mt_rand(0, $last_pos);
$random_item = $items_array[$random_pos];
Solution 28 - Java
Unfortunately, this cannot be done efficiently (better than O(n)) in any of the Standard Library set containers.
This is odd, since it is very easy to add a randomized pick function to hash sets as well as binary sets. In a not to sparse hash set, you can try random entries, until you get a hit. For a binary tree, you can choose randomly between the left or right subtree, with a maximum of O(log2) steps. I've implemented a demo of the later below:
import random
class Node:
def __init__(self, object):
self.object = object
self.value = hash(object)
self.size = 1
self.a = self.b = None
class RandomSet:
def __init__(self):
self.top = None
def add(self, object):
""" Add any hashable object to the set.
Notice: In this simple implementation you shouldn't add two
identical items. """
new = Node(object)
if not self.top: self.top = new
else: self._recursiveAdd(self.top, new)
def _recursiveAdd(self, top, new):
top.size += 1
if new.value < top.value:
if not top.a: top.a = new
else: self._recursiveAdd(top.a, new)
else:
if not top.b: top.b = new
else: self._recursiveAdd(top.b, new)
def pickRandom(self):
""" Pick a random item in O(log2) time.
Does a maximum of O(log2) calls to random as well. """
return self._recursivePickRandom(self.top)
def _recursivePickRandom(self, top):
r = random.randrange(top.size)
if r == 0: return top.object
elif top.a and r <= top.a.size: return self._recursivePickRandom(top.a)
return self._recursivePickRandom(top.b)
if __name__ == '__main__':
s = RandomSet()
for i in [5,3,7,1,4,6,9,2,8,0]:
s.add(i)
dists = [0]*10
for i in xrange(10000):
dists[s.pickRandom()] += 1
print dists
I got [995, 975, 971, 995, 1057, 1004, 966, 1052, 984, 1001] as output, so the distribution seams good.
I've struggled with the same problem for myself, and I haven't yet decided weather the performance gain of this more efficient pick is worth the overhead of using a python based collection. I could of course refine it and translate it to C, but that is too much work for me today :)
Solution 29 - Java
you can also transfer the set to array use array it will probably work on small scale i see the for loop in the most voted answer is O(n) anyway
Object[] arr = set.toArray();
int v = (int) arr[rnd.nextInt(arr.length)];
Solution 30 - Java
If you really just want to pick "any" object from the Set
, without any guarantees on the randomness, the easiest is taking the first returned by the iterator.
Set<Integer> s = ...
Iterator<Integer> it = s.iterator();
if(it.hasNext()){
Integer i = it.next();
// i is a "random" object from set
}
Solution 31 - Java
A generic solution using Khoth's answer as a starting point.
/**
* @param set a Set in which to look for a random element
* @param <T> generic type of the Set elements
* @return a random element in the Set or null if the set is empty
*/
public <T> T randomElement(Set<T> set) {
int size = set.size();
int item = random.nextInt(size);
int i = 0;
for (T obj : set) {
if (i == item) {
return obj;
}
i++;
}
return null;
}
Solution 32 - Java
If you don't mind a 3rd party library, the Utils library has a IterableUtils that has a randomFrom(Iterable
Set<Object> set = new HashSet<>();
set.add(...);
...
Object random = IterableUtils.randomFrom(set);
It is in the Maven Central Repository at:
<dependency>
<groupId>com.github.rkumsher</groupId>
<artifactId>utils</artifactId>
<version>1.3</version>
</dependency>
Solution 33 - Java
If set size is not large then by using Arrays this can be done.
int random;
HashSet someSet;
<Type>[] randData;
random = new Random(System.currentTimeMillis).nextInt(someSet.size());
randData = someSet.toArray();
<Type> sResult = randData[random];
Solution 34 - Java
after reading this thread, the best i could write is:
static Random random = new Random(System.currentTimeMillis());
public static <T> T randomChoice(T[] choices)
{
int index = random.nextInt(choices.length);
return choices[index];
}