Question

I have a NSMutableArray of N Integer elements (N>4), I want to get 3 different random elements from this array. I do not really need a perfectly-uniform distribution, just 3 different random elements should be OK. Do you have any suggestion? Thanks

Answer 1

Make NSIndexSet, and keep adding

int value = arc4random() % array.count;

items to it until its size gets to 3. The you know that you have your three indexes.

NSMutableIndexSet *picks = [NSMutableIndexSet indexSet];
do {
    [picks addIndex:arc4random() % array.count];
} while (picks.count != 3);
[picks enumerateIndexesUsingBlock:^(NSUInteger idx, BOOL *stop) {
    NSLog(@"Element at index %ud: %@", idx, [array elementAt:idx]);
}];