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How to shuffle list items in an array on refresh

in Using jQuery • 12 years ago

Hi everyone, I want to create an array of list items that will shuffle randomly when a user refreshes the page.

I also only want to display 3 items at at time, but when the browser refreshes it will show 3 random ones each time.

I've seen shuffle plugins, but they work if someone clicks on a button to shuffle the items, which I don't want to do. I want it to shuffle randomly on reload of the page. Can anyone help me with what I'm trying to do? I'm not that great at using jQuery, but I'm learning.

Replies(6)

sime.vidas

Re: How to shuffle list items in an array on refresh

12 years ago

http://vidasp.net/tinydemos/random-items.html

--
Šime Vidas
http://www.w3viewer.com

intermixd..

Re: Re: How to shuffle list items in an array on refresh

12 years ago

Thank you so much for this. This feels like a dumb question, but if I want to call a particular list, where do I specify that in the jQuery? I tried setting it in this line:

var $li = $("ul.facts li").hide();

That didn't work for me, so is there a way to set it somewhere? I have more than one <ul> in the page, so it's confusing it with something else.

Thanks again for your help :)

sime.vidas

Re: How to shuffle list items in an array on refresh

12 years ago

What you need is to select the LI elements (not call them)....

If your UL list has the class "facts" set like so...

...then you should use this line of code:

var $li = $("ul.facts").children().hide();

--
Šime Vidas
http://www.w3viewer.com

intermixd..

Re: Re: How to shuffle list items in an array on refresh

12 years ago

Thank You! :D

dan.j.hak..

Re: How to shuffle list items in an array on refresh

12 years ago

Might I recommend javascript's sort() function? You pass it the name of a function which returns a value to prioritize objects in an array. So...

function random_sort (thing)

{

return (0.5 - Math.random() );

}

var things = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7];

things.sort(random_sort);

So, just pick the top three new items in things.

I'm pretty sure that if random_sort returns the same number, the first object to be sorted goes in first, so it's slightly biased toward the beginning... but don't quote me on that. Handy, though, no?