Raffle a random order for meeting participants

README.md

How to install Lua & develop and run the lottery.lua file (in macOS)

Install Lua by using Homebrew

• Open Terminal and copy & paste this:

brew install lua

• You may also want to install a package manager for Lua, e.g. LuaRocks:

brew install luarocks

Develope by using Visual Studio Code

• Open Visual Studio Code and add these extensions:
  • Lua
  • vscode-lua-format

Run Vua files

• Write this to Terminal: lua [filename].lua, e.g. lua lottery.lua

Example output for lottery.lua

❯ lua lottery.lua
Random order list content:
4
2
3
5
1
Final order of the name list:
Catherine
Helen
Terry
Max
Mike

lottery.lua

string.split =
    function(str, pattern) -- Source for this method: http://lua-users.org/wiki/SplitJoin
        pattern = pattern or "[^%s]+"
        if pattern:len() == 0 then pattern = "[^%s]+" end
        local parts = {__index = table.insert}
        setmetatable(parts, parts)
        str:gsub(pattern, parts)
        setmetatable(parts, nil)
        parts.__index = nil
        return parts
    end

Names = "Mike, Helen, Terry, Catherine, Max" -- TODO: Change these names based on your meeting

NameList = Names:split("[^,%s]+")
OrderList = {}

function Contains(Array, Object)
    for i = 1, #Array do
        Val = Array[i]
        if (Val == Object) then return true end
    end
    return false
end

repeat
    RandomNumber = math.random(1, #NameList)
    if not Contains(OrderList, RandomNumber) then
        table.insert(OrderList, RandomNumber)
    end
until #OrderList == #NameList

print("Random order list content:")

for i = 1, #OrderList do print(OrderList[i]) end

print("Final order of the name list:")

for i = 1, #OrderList do print(NameList[OrderList[i]]) end