Question

I have an array that I want to permutate randomly. In Java, there is a method Collections.shuffle() that can shuffle the elements of a List randomly. It can be used on an array too:

String[] array = new String[]{"a", "b", "c"};

// Shuffle the array; works because the list returned by Arrays.asList() is backed by the array
Collections.shuffle(Arrays.asList(array));

I tried using this on a Scala array, but the Scala interpreter responds with a lengthy answer:

scala> val a = Array("a", "b", "c")
a: Array[java.lang.String] = Array(a, b, c)

scala> java.util.Collections.shuffle(java.util.Arrays.asList(a))
<console>:6: warning: I'm seeing an array passed into a Java vararg.
I assume that the elements of this array should be passed as individual arguments to the vararg.
Therefore I follow the array with a `: _*', to mark it as a vararg argument.
If that's not what you want, compile this file with option -Xno-varargs-conversion.
       java.util.Collections.shuffle(java.util.Arrays.asList(a))
                                                             ^
<console>:6: error: type mismatch;
 found   : Array[java.lang.String]
 required: Seq[Array[java.lang.String]]
       java.util.Collections.shuffle(java.util.Arrays.asList(a))
                                                             ^

What exactly is happening here? I don’t want to compile my code with a special flag (-Xno-varargs-conversion), if that is the solution at all, just because of this.

So, how do I use Java’s Collections.shuffle() on a Scala array?

I wrote my own shuffle method in Scala in the meantime:

// Fisher-Yates shuffle, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisher–Yates_shuffle
def shuffle[T](array: Array[T]): Array[T] = {
    val rnd = new java.util.Random
    for (n <- Iterator.range(array.length - 1, 0, -1)) {
        val k = rnd.nextInt(n + 1)
        val t = array(k); array(k) = array(n); array(n) = t
    }
    return array
}

It shuffles the array in place, and returns the array itself for convenience.

Answer 1

java.util.Collections.shuffle(java.util.Arrays.asList(a:_*))

For the above to work correctly, a’s element type has to be a subclass of scala.AnyRef (equivalent to java.lang.Object) because Arrays.asList() uses the array passed in as the backing store for the result java.util.List and java.util.List can contain only object references (not primitive values).*

That is also the reason why Collections.shuffle() which shuffles the passed-in java.util.List actually shuffled the array.*

*: See the note below

For example:

scala> val a = Array[java.lang.Integer](1, 2, 3) // note the type parameter                  
a: Array[java.lang.Integer] = Array(1, 2, 3)

scala> java.util.Collections.shuffle(java.util.Arrays.asList(a:_*))

scala> a
res43: Array[java.lang.Integer] = Array(1, 3, 2)

scala> java.util.Collections.shuffle(java.util.Arrays.asList(a:_*))

scala> a
res45: Array[java.lang.Integer] = Array(1, 2, 3)

Note: Scala 2.7.5 is used for the above code snippets. Scala 2.8.0 exhibits different behaviors as Daniel demonstrated. To be on the safe side, do not depend on the fact that the array gets shuffled but instead the list that is returned from Arrays.asList() gets shuffled.

scala> val a = Array[java.lang.Integer](1, 2, 3)
a: Array[java.lang.Integer] = Array(1, 2, 3)

scala> val b = java.util.Arrays.asList(a:_*)
b: java.util.List[java.lang.Integer] = [1, 2, 3]

scala> java.util.Collections.shuffle(b)

scala> b
res50: java.util.List[java.lang.Integer] = [2, 1, 3]

scala> java.util.Collections.shuffle(b)

scala> b
res52: java.util.List[java.lang.Integer] = [3, 1, 2]