For such problems where there's no built-in function in Processing, do a research for Java methods in general :

You can use Collections.shuffle() method to shuffle a collection - or an array using Arrays.asList() method.

Code:

String[] array = new String[]{"1", "2", "3"};
println(array[0] + " / " + array[1] + " / " + array[2]);
Collections.shuffle(Arrays.asList(array));
println(array[0] + " / " + array[1] + " / " + array[2]); 

hmmm... while your example works fine with ints or strings, the P5 compiler throws an error when I define a hex-color array.


int maxpal = 1024;
size(1200, 1200);
background(255);

int middle = width/2;
smooth();

color[] goodcolor = new color[]{#FEFEFE, #FEFEFD, #FBFEF9, #FCFEFC, #FCFEFB, #FEFEFC, #FEFDF9 ... goes on and on and on...};
color[] c = subset(goodcolor, 300); // cut off first 300 colors (most likely white-ish)

Collections.shuffle(Arrays.asList(c)); // randomize array

for (int i = 0; i < c.length; i++) {
strokeWeight(5);
stroke(c[i]);
noFill();
//ellipse(middle,  middle,  width-(i+5),  height-(i+5)); // from outside to center
ellipse(middle, middle, i*1.4, i*1.4); // from center to outside
} // end loop

//save("colorCircle.tif");



Semantic Error: No applicable overload for a method with signature "asList(int[])" was found in type "java.util.Arrays". Perhaps you wanted the overloaded version "java.util.List asList(java.lang.Object... $1);" instead?


I've tried using List, but that didn't work either. Is there any way around that? Do I have to convert the hex values to something else first?