How to Shuffle a Vector in C++?

Shuffling a vector means rearranging the position of its elements in random order. In this article, we will look at how to shuffle the vector in C++.

Example

Input:
myVector = {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}

Output:
myVector = {1, 3, 7, 6, 4, 2, 5}

Shuffle a Vector in C++

In C++, the STL in C++ provides a std::shuffle() function that conveniently shuffles the elements of a vector. It is defined inside <algorithm> header files and requires the vector and a random number generation to work.

C++ Program to Shuffle a Vector in C++

C++

// C++ Program to Shuffle Elements in a Vector

#include <algorithm>
#include <iostream>
#include <random>
#include <vector>

using namespace std;

int main()
{
    // Create a vector of elements
    vector<int> vec = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 };

    // Initialize random number generator
    random_device rd;
    mt19937 g(rd());

    // Shuffle the vector
    shuffle(vec.begin(), vec.end(), g);

    // Display the shuffled vector
    cout << "Shuffled vector: ";
    for (int num : vec) {
        cout << num << " ";
    }
    cout << endl;

    return 0;
}

Output

Shuffled vector: 2 1 4 5 3 7 6