How to get a random element from an array in Swift

Overview

In Swift, we can get a random element from an array by using randomELement(). If the array is empty, nil is returned.

Syntax

arr.randomElement()

Parameters

This method does not take any parameters.

Return value

This method returns an element from the array arr, picked at random.

Example

// create arrays
let numbers = [1, 3, 10, 4]
let techCoys = ["Google", "Amazon", "Netflix"]
// get random elements
let randomNum = numbers.randomElement()!
let randomTechName = techCoys.randomElement()!
// print random elements
print(randomNum)
print(randomTechName)

Explanation

In the above code snippet:

  • Line 2 and 3: We create arrays numbers and techCoys.
  • Line 5 and 6: We call the randomElement() method on the arrays we created, and store the elements inside variables randomNum and randomTechName.
  • Line 8 and 9: We print the results.

Free Resources

License: Creative Commons-Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC-BY-SA 4.0)