C++ In a Nutshell

Name

random_shuffle function template — Reorders a range into a random order

Synopsis

template<typename RandIter>
  void random_shuffle(RandIter first, RandIter last);
template<typename RandIter, typename RandomNumberGenerator>
  void random_shuffle(RandIter first, RandIter last, 
                      RandomNumberGenerator& rand);

The random_shuffle function template changes the order of elements in the range [first, last) to a random order. The first form uses an implementation-defined random number generator to produce a uniform distribution. The second form calls rand(n) to generate random numbers, in which n is a positive value of type iterator_traits<RandIter>::difference_type. The return value from rand must be convertible to the same difference_type and be in the range [0, n).

Technical Notes

Complexity is linear: exactly (last - first) + 1 swaps are performed.

See Also

swap function template, rand in <cstdlib>