How to retrieve randomized value?

Question

Building the data structure of the "Fun Fact App" on the Swift course, "arc4random_uniform()" is used to randomize "Facts" appeared on screen after pressing the "New Fact" button.

Based on the same logic, if I were to build a "Word of the day App" with the "facts" changed to "definitions" and the only difference is to add an extra label to show the word of the listed "definition", what are some ways to make sure the word and the randomized definition matches?

Answer 1 · 2015-12-01T12:37:56Z

December 1, 2015 12:37pm

Hi Jay!

Yes you can use the same logic for building a word of the day app, just as you access the facts in the factsArray in the FunFacts app you can build two similar arrays (wordArray and definitionsArray) and use the same logic for accessing their data. But instead of making two separate structs holding the words and definitions I figured that I'd make one struct holding them both.

The function for accessing a random word and its definition is therefor returning a tuple holding both the random word and the definition since they relate to each other. One note though, the randomizing function works if both of the arrays used have the same length (maybe that goes without saying). Curious as I am in how the code would look I gave it a go...

A struct holding the words and definitions can look like below

struct WordBook {

    let wordArray = [
        "Ant",
        "Cat",
        "Bass"]

    let definitionsArray = [
        "An ant is an insect that walk on six legs",
        "A cat is a mamal that walk on four legs",
        "A bass is a fish which swims with fins"]

    func randomWordAndDescription() -> (word: String, description: String) {
        let unsignedArrayCount = UInt32(wordArray.count)
        let unsignedRandomNumber = arc4random_uniform(unsignedArrayCount)
        let randomNumber = Int(unsignedRandomNumber)

        let randomWord = wordArray[randomNumber]
        let randomDescription = definitionsArray[randomNumber]

        return (randomWord, randomDescription)
    }

}

In the view controller you can then access a random word + its definition like below

@IBOutlet weak var wordOfTheDayLabel = UILabel!
@IBOutlet weak var definitionOfTheDayLabel = UILabel!

let wordAndDefinitions = WordBook()
let (wordOfTheDay, definitionOfTheDay) = wordAndDefinitions.randomWordAndDescription()
wordOfTheDay
definitionOfTheDay

wordOfTheDayLabel.text = wordOfTheDay
definitionOfTheDayLabel.text = definitionOfTheDay

I hope this example helped you... Keep coding :D

/ Jens

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Jay L

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How to retrieve randomized value?

1 Answer

Jens Hagfeldt

Jens Hagfeldt

Jay L

Jay L