How to Efficiently Select Random Elements from a List in C#?

Randomly Selecting Items from a C# List

The Challenge:

Efficiently retrieving a predetermined number of random items from a generic list is a common programming task. For example, selecting three random strings from a List<string>.

A LINQ-Based Solution:

LINQ provides an elegant solution:

<code class="language-csharp">YourList.OrderBy(x => rnd.Next()).Take(3)</code>

Here's a breakdown:

• YourList: Your input list.
• OrderBy(x => rnd.Next()): This shuffles the list randomly using a random number generator.
• rnd: An instance of the Random class.
• Take(3): This selects the first three elements from the shuffled list, effectively giving you three random items.

This approach creates a new list containing the randomly chosen items.

The above is the detailed content of How to Efficiently Select Random Elements from a List in C#?. For more information, please follow other related articles on the PHP Chinese website!