how to get random item from array

[tired condor]

im trying to put 1 player on a specific team then put every other player on another team

[tired condor]

how to get random item from array

[sharp heron]

Did you still need help with this?

[errant granite]

Get array name of the table then
do (tablename)[math.random(1,#game.Players:GetChildren()]

[sharp heron]

yup nice

although u can change #game.Players:GetChildren() to #tablename

[fallow cloud]

what has rng got to do with this..

[sharp heron]

and u can use Random.new() instead of math.random as it is deprecated

for optimal randomness, you can use the current timestamp as a randomseed generator

local r = Random.new(tick())

[fallow cloud]

filter the array by value like for pairs(player:getplayers)do if player==target_player then dotargetplayerstuff() else doeveryoneelse() end and you can decide the 1 player however you want.

[fallow cloud]

math.random isn't deprecated..?

[sharp heron]

my bad it may not be deprecated although it is no longer considered best practice

[sharp heron]

this is facts

[fallow cloud]

it has always been considered best practice jeez where are you getting your information from

[sharp heron]

okay let me check rq

[fallow cloud]

Random.new() is for seeded random bruh

[fallow cloud]

https://create.roblox.com/docs/reference/engine/libraries/math#random

[sharp heron]

math.random has seeded random too

[fallow cloud]

technically it's a singleton sure, but that doesn't really change the point of it

random.new is specifically for concurrent seeded random generators independent of global rng, which is what the math.random/randomseed is for

like terrain generation for example, re-generating chunks would use a random.new instead of math.random

or random:copy

[sharp heron]

https://devforum.roblox.com/t/mathrandom010-vs-randomnewnextnumber010/952496/3

Yeah I guess I never considered the actual pros vs cons but I just started using Random.new() when I saw it one day, it seemed cleaner I guess

I thought I saw somewhere it was best practice but I think it's just something I started doing a while ago and never stopped

"The one big advantage of Random is that you can have different RNGs with different states, which is useful if you’re trying to generate the same sequence of numbers from the same seed." - ThanksRoBama

[fallow cloud]

the very next response says:

I guess you could look at it this way too: math.random() is global and Random.new() is local.
sounds familiar

[sharp heron]

ah I see

[fallow cloud]

and the response you linked makes a statement about "good and bad sequences" but doesn't explain what that is

[sharp heron]

thats interesting

[fallow cloud]

i think they mean sequences with low and high rolls in it but that's just what you should expect from rng.

[sharp heron]

I think they were reffering to the randomness

yeah

[fallow cloud]

no, it's all equal distribution randomness

[sharp heron]

no not the algorithim

the code logic, like if someone uses randomseed or not

but I think they didn't know that they both use the same algorithim when they speculated on the effective randomness of Random

[fallow cloud]

it would have very niche and specific consequences if you continually set randomseed to 1 every frame but most people wouldn't immediately be able to tell

[sharp heron]

lol true

[fallow cloud]

yeah they're the same, calling them global and local is a good way to put it

[sharp heron]

it might just make like all servers in a game more likely to produce similar results over similar timespans of the games runtime\

[sharp heron]

learned something new thanks!

[fallow cloud]

anyway the original question was about filtering in a for loop, rng wasn't related to anything here 🤷

glad you learned something along the way, is that not what it was always about?

[sharp heron]

what would be a better way of ensuring randomness when setting one of the players as the 'killer'

I guess it depends if subsequent calls to :GetChildren() end up producing the list in the same order or randomized

[fallow cloud]

i overlooked the title

[sharp heron]

oh lol

[fallow cloud]

this is correct then. the filtering is also a problem, something to look out for.

[errant granite]

The post has random in the title

[tired condor]

hey ik this is late but how do u get the tablename

cuz i was reading it but i cant rly understand

[errant granite]

Whatever the variable for your table is

[worldly spear]

** You are now Level 3! **

[errant granite]

Local tablename = {}

The name would be tablename

[tired condor]

Oh ok

[tired condor]

So the table name would be the
returnarray = {}

[errant granite]

Yep looks like it

[tired condor]

Ok thanks

I’m not home rn I’ll try it when I get back

[tired condor]

ok im home now and i tried it but i got this error

lemme ss

lemme print it to see what it thinks it is...

i printed it and it just came as nil

[errant granite]

Ig filter array doesn’t exist