Rails: random unique array of fixed length - ruby-on-rails

Question

How can I ensure uniqueness in this array while maintaining its length at 5?
def fixed
5.times.collect { SecureRandom.random_number(10) }
end
This behaviour seems odd:
5.times.collect.uniq { SecureRandom.random_number(10) }
# => [0, 2, 3, 4]
5.times.collect.uniq { SecureRandom.random_number(10) }
# => [0, 1, 3]
5.times.collect.uniq { SecureRandom.random_number(10) }
# => [0, 1, 2, 3, 4]
5.times.collect.uniq { SecureRandom.random_number(10) }
# => [0, 1, 2, 4]
5.times.collect.uniq { SecureRandom.random_number(10) }
# => [0, 1, 2, 3]

Answer 1

When the number of possible values is small – like 10 in your example – then I would generate an array with all options and just pick a random sample of entries:
(0..9).to_a.sample(5)
If the number of possible values is huge then generation all values first is certainly not an option. Then I would generate a random value as long as the array doesn't contain enough entries:
require 'set'
values = Set.new
until values.length == 5 do
values.add(SecureRandom.random_number(1_000_000))
end
values.to_a
Note the I am using a Set to ensure the uniqueness of the values in the second version.

Answer 2

Using SecureRandom
def fixed
unique_numbers = []
5.times.collect do
loop do
number = SecureRandom.random_number(10)
break number unless unique_numbers.include?(number)
end
end
end
And if you want to generate unique numbers between 1 to 10, then you can create array of 1 to 10 and use shuffle or sample to get random numbers.
Using shuffle
> (0...10).to_a.shuffle.take(5)
=> [4, 0, 1, 3, 7]
> (0...10).to_a.shuffle.take(5)
=> [6, 2, 3, 9, 1]
> (0...10).to_a.shuffle.take(5)
=> [9, 2, 5, 8, 4]
> (0...10).to_a.shuffle.take(5)
=> [5, 0, 6, 8, 7]
> (0...10).to_a.shuffle.take(5)
=> [2, 7, 1, 5, 0]
Using sample
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5)
=> [4, 6, 3, 2, 7]
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5)
=> [5, 8, 2, 3, 7]
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5)
=> [2, 5, 6, 1, 3]
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5)
=> [8, 5, 10, 9, 3]
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5)
=> [8, 1, 5, 3, 4]
You can also pass SecureRandom custom random generator as an argument with sample
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5, random: SecureRandom)
=> [6, 3, 4, 7, 10]
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5, random: SecureRandom)
=> [7, 4, 8, 1, 5]
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5, random: SecureRandom)
=> [8, 3, 9, 5, 10]
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5, random: SecureRandom)
=> [6, 8, 9, 2, 1]
> (1..10).to_a.sample(5, random: SecureRandom)
=> [9, 10, 1, 8, 2]

Answer 3

Just out of curiosity, using Enumerable#cycle infinite generator.
MAX = 10
SIZE = 5
[MAX].cycle.inject(Set.new) do |acc, max|
break acc if acc.size >= SIZE
acc << SecureRandom.random_number(max)
end
#⇒ #<Set: {2, 1, 7, 0, 9}>
or even with generic loop:
loop.each_with_object(Set.new) do |_, acc|
break acc if acc.size >= SIZE
acc << SecureRandom.random_number(10)
end
#⇒ #<Set: {2, 6, 7, 1, 3}>

Answer 4

One way would be to generate a range of numbers from 0 to 10 and
then shuffle them to get the unique random numbers.
You can convert that range to Array using to_a and shuffle them using shuffle
You can do something like this:
(0..10).to_a.shuffle[0..4] # => [8, 6, 1, 9, 10]
[0..4] will give you the first 5 shuffled elements.