Javascript array random choosing issue

Question

var eg = "one"
var eg2 = "two"
var eg3 = "three"
function randomchoose() {
 var rand = ["eg", "eg2", "eg3"];
 var act = [eg, eg2, eg3];
 choose = rand[Math.floor(Math.random()*rand.length)]
 chosen = act[choose]
 return [chosen, choose];
}

my issue with this is that I don't know how to make "chosen" be the variable that was randomly chosen.

basically, if it rolls eg, i want chosen to be "one" and same goes for others

------EDIT------ I forgot to specify, i need it to return the variable name as "choose" and the actual value as "chosen"

• charlietfl: What exactly do you plan to do with the returned variable name? Sounds like you should create an object instead of use multiple variables

Answer 1

As I understood, you want to return field name and field value, which were randomly chosen. Here's a snippet:

var eg = "one"
var eg2 = "two"
var eg3 = "three"
function choseRandom() {
 var rand = ["eg", "eg2", "eg3"];
 var act = [eg, eg2, eg3];
 var chosenIndex = Math.floor(Math.random()*rand.length);
 var fieldName = rand[chosenIndex]
 var fieldValue = act[chosenIndex]
 return [fieldName, fieldValue];
}
console.log(choseRandom());
console.log(choseRandom());
console.log(choseRandom());

• Krypt1: What exactly doesn't work in my snippet for you? I'll update the answer if something's off, but it should work correctly.
• Krypt1: Ah, okay. Also I've updated the choose and chosen variables, to better reflect the purpose and made them local, instead of global (Why are global variables considered bad practice?). Also you might want to change the return value from array to object, but it really depends on your case I guess.
• Cate: in my case i'd need arrays, this little code is later used and requires arrays...very specific i know haha, anyway thanks a lot for the help!

Answer 2

Use an object instead of multiple variables to store the values

var data = {
 eg: "one",
 eg2: "two",
 eg3: "three"
}
function randomchoose() {
 var rand = ["eg", "eg2", "eg3"];
 choose = rand[Math.floor(Math.random() * rand.length)]
 chosen = data[choose]
 return [chosen, choose];
}
console.log(randomchoose())

Answer 3

You just need to store the random number you get and pass with the array when you need it. Here is snippet

Updated as per your question

var eg = "one"
var eg2 = "two"
var eg3 = "three"
function randomchoose() {
 var rand = ["eg", "eg2", "eg3"];
 var act = [eg, eg2, eg3];
 randomNumber = Math.floor(Math.random()*rand.length)
 chosen = act[randomNumber]
 choose = rand[randomNumber]
 return [chosen, choose];
}
console.log(randomchoose())

• Satyam Pathak: I am laughing now, who downvoted this and why? Well Happy to help you :)

Answer 4

chosen = act[rand.indexOf(choose)]

• Jos van Weesel: Can you give a more elaborate answer. You can post an example of the fixed code, for example.