How do I shuffle an array in Swift?

Question

How do I randomize or shuffle the elements within an array in Swift? For example, if my array consists of 52 playing cards, I want to shuffle the array in o

Answer 1

Working Array Extension (mutating & non-mutating)

Swift 4.1 / Xcode 9

The top answer is deprecated, so I took it upon myself to create my own extension to shuffle an array in the newest version of Swift, Swift 4.1 (Xcode 9):

extension Array {

// Non-mutating shuffle
    var shuffled : Array {
        let totalCount : Int = self.count
        var shuffledArray : Array = []
        var count : Int = totalCount
        var tempArray : Array = self
        for _ in 0..<totalCount {
            let randomIndex : Int = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(count)))
            let randomElement : Element = tempArray.remove(at: randomIndex)
            shuffledArray.append(randomElement)
            count -= 1
        }
        return shuffledArray
    }

// Mutating shuffle
    mutating func shuffle() {
        let totalCount : Int = self.count
        var shuffledArray : Array = []
        var count : Int = totalCount
        var tempArray : Array = self
        for _ in 0..<totalCount {
            let randomIndex : Int = Int(arc4random_uniform(UInt32(count)))
            let randomElement : Element = tempArray.remove(at: randomIndex)
            shuffledArray.append(randomElement)
            count -= 1
        }
        self = shuffledArray
    }
}

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Call Non-Mutating Shuffle [Array] -> [Array]:

let array = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]

print(array.shuffled)

This prints array in a random order.

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Call Mutating Shuffle [Array] = [Array]:

var array = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]

array.shuffle() 
// The array has now been mutated and contains all of its initial 
// values, but in a randomized shuffled order

print(array) 

This prints array in its current order, which has already been randomly shuffled.

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Hopes this works for everybody, if you have any questions, suggestions, or comments, feel free to ask!