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Shuffle: Fisher-Yates vs Naive Shuffles (Swift 4)
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extension Array { | |
/// Simple implementation of Fisher-Yates | |
mutating func shuffle() { | |
for i in 0 ..< count - 1 { | |
let j = i + Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(count - i))) | |
swapAt(i, j) | |
} | |
} | |
/// Naive implementation that introduces biases | |
mutating func shuffleBiased() { | |
for i in 0 ..< count { | |
let j = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(count))) | |
swapAt(i, j) | |
} | |
} | |
} |
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The naive shuffle algorithm generates a very biased result. For example, shuffling an array of 10 numbers 10,000,000 times resulted in a distribution of:
Whereas Fisher-Yates algorithm results in the following distribution: