Question

I would like to randomize an array which contains stdClasses as value for every key and the stdclasses order must be the original.

for example the original array looks like this:

Array(
 [0]=>stdClass(/*lots of keys with value that must stay here and stay in order 
                 for example [id]=1 [name]=One*/)
 [1]=>stdClass(/*lots of keys with value that must stay here and stay in order 
                 for example [id]=2 [name]=Two*/)
 [2]=>stdClass(/*lots of keys with value that must stay here and stay in order 
                 for example [id]=3 [name]=Three*/)
 [3]=>stdClass(/*lots of keys with value that must stay here and stay in order 
                 for example [id]=4 [name]=Four*/)
)

and this is what I would like to achive:

Array(
 [3]=>stdClass(/*lots of keys with value that must stay here and stay in order 
                 for example [id]=4 [name]=Four*/)
 [0]=>stdClass(/*lots of keys with value that must stay here and stay in order 
                 for example [id]=1 [name]=One*/)
 [1]=>stdClass(/*lots of keys with value that must stay here and stay in order 
                 for example [id]=2 [name]=Two*/)
 [2]=>stdClass(/*lots of keys with value that must stay here and stay in order 
                 for example [id]=3 [name]=Three*/)
)

I tried this function PHP Random Shuffle Array Maintaining Key => Value but this shuffels the stdClasses too and thats not good.
for example zero key’s class->id is shuffeld to third key

And I don’t know how to randomize this in the right way.

Answer 1

This will shuffle your array and maintain key/value association.

$array = array('a'=> '1', 'b'=>'2', 'c'=>'3');

function shuffle_assoc($array) {
    $keys = array_keys($array);
    shuffle($keys);

    $result = array();
    foreach ($keys as $k) {
        $result[$k] = $array[$k];
    }

    return $result;
}

$result = shuffle_assoc($array);

// $result = array('b'=>'2', 'c'=>'3', 'a'=>'1')