programming help

[Xyzar]

<!-- is there a quick, eay way to select a random item from a Hashmap?

all i could think of is loading the names of the items in the hasmap into a second hashmap, only numbered. (an Int as the key, and name (from the first hasmap) and value). then using a random numer (random generated) to get one of the values (name) and using that value to get an item from the first hashmap

 

if that made sence..

 

however i am unsure as to how ican get the names from the first hashmap (so i can out them in a new one) -->

[Svip]

A hashmap is like a table or array, right?

 

If so, then you 'recreate' your first hashmap so the first column (or field) was an id.

 

 

id	name	value
1	"A"	"5"
2	"B"	"10"
3	"C"	"25"
...	...	...
N	name(N)	value(N)

This is just an example...

 

Then you could figure out how large your table/hashmap was (which in my example is N). Then select a random number from 1 to N (int), and find the row you're looking for that way.

 

I do not know java much, but here is an example in PHP:

 

 

<?php$array = array(1 => array('name' => 'A','value' => 5),2 => array('name' => 'B','value' => 10),3 => array('name' => 'C','value' => 25));/* We assume that N is just 3 this time. */$r = rand(1,3);echo $array[$r]['name'].' : '.$array[$r]['value'];?>

 

 

This should about something along with;

 

A : 5

 

If $r was 1.

 

I don't know if my input helped, but perhaps you could reconsider your core/structure of your program.

[Jevon]

Can you not access hashmap items by index rather than by key?

[Xyzar]

<!-- you get items out of a hashmap using the key value

a hashmap record is made up out of a key and a value

where key can be.. anything (a number, a string) and value can be.. anything

in my case the key is a string, and the value is a Room item.

 

i've found a way though, not a nice one though

 

the class hashmap has a method to generate a Set of the keys, and Set had a method to covert it to an array

so i can (in a messy way) create an array of the key values, and then randomly select one of those -->