Demo: Randomize Table Rows

tatiang

I got a little tired of using a method for extracting random table rows (e.g. randomly picking an image from a list of images, a question from a list of questions, etc.) that deletes a table row after choosing it, so I hit up Google and found a nice little algorithm. The source of the algorithm and the source of the time stamp loop (which I've posted about previously) are in the actor's notes.

Basically, this takes a table (currently 10 rows and only 1 column, but adaptable as needed) and randomly shuffles the rows "in place." I have not tested it extensively so if anyone has any criticisms or improvements, I'm all ears.

epicstag

This is great. Thanks for this!

tatiang

currently 10 rows and only 1 column, but adaptable as needed

If you need more rows, you'll need to add them to the DisplayText behavior. In that behavior, you'll see that I have concatenated each row like this:

tableCellValue( game.|T| Values ,1,1).."\n"..
tableCellValue( game.|T| Values ,2,1)

The .. concatenates or joins expressions, while the "\n" adds a new line.

You could, of course, create a separate loop to concatenate all of the row data into a single text attribute and then just display that attribute.

RThurman

@tatiang -- That's pretty slick! Thanks for sharing.

Chakku

@tatiang

Great!- thanks for sharing.

Chakku

Braydon_SFX

Nice one, @tatiang !

tatiang

Thanks, guys! Glad you're finding it useful.

gyroscope

Excellent, @tatiang, (I must have missed this post at the time). I have Awesomed you! :-)

Still trying to get my head around it tho' , to understand what's going on with your impressive programming.

tatiang

@gyroscope While I'd love to take all the credit, I didn't come up with the idea. I just translated an algorithm that already existed (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knuth_shuffle) into a GameSalad project file. I didn't spend a lot time trying to understand the algorithm... I just googled ways to randomize data and then implemented what looked like the easiest one.

gyroscope

OK, still good work then in the translation, so still awesome in my books! And yes, at first glance, it all looks a bit head-scratching... :-)