Question

In Java, I know that to shuffle an ArrayList, the method Collections.shuffle() exists, however this shuffles the entire list.

How can I write a method (or, can someone write it and show me it?) such as the following:

private ArrayList<AnObject> list;

/**
 * Shuffles the concents of the array list in the range [start, end], and 
 * does not do anything to the other indicies of the list.
 */
public void shuffleArrayListInTheRange(int start, int end)

Answer 1

Use List.subList and Collections.shuffle, like this:

Collections.shuffle(list.subList(start, end));

(Note that the second index to subList exclusive, so use end+1 if you want to include end index in the shuffle.)

Since List.subList returns a view of the list, changes made (by the shuffle method) to the sub list, will also affect the original list.