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CalcChef

List Randomizer

Shuffle a list, pick winners or split it into near-equal groups with the browser's cryptographic random generator: one item per line, up to 10,000 lines. How it works

Use the List Randomizer

0 items. Up to 10,000 lines.

Randomized Result
Press Randomize

Lines are trimmed and blank lines are ignored; with Remove Duplicates only identical lines are merged (Alice and alice stay separate). Every position is drawn with the browser's cryptographic random generator, so every order of the list can come up. That is not an audited drawing: for a prize draw that others must trust, draw in front of them.

About the List Randomizer

Paste one item per line, choose Shuffle the list, Pick winners or Split into groups, and press Randomize. A shuffle gives every possible order the same chance (a 4-item list has 24), winners are never drawn twice, and groups differ in size by at most one. The list randomizer takes up to 10,000 lines.

Group sizes when a list is split

ItemsGroupsGroup sizes
724, 3
1034, 3, 3
2547, 6, 6, 6
3065, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

The list is shuffled and dealt round the groups in turn, so the first groups get the extra items.

Frequently asked questions

How do I randomize a list of names?
Paste the names one per line, keep Shuffle the list selected and press Randomize. Blank lines are skipped and spaces at the ends of lines are trimmed; tick Remove Duplicates to merge identical lines. Copy puts the result on the clipboard and says whether it worked.
How do I pick a random winner from a list?
Choose Pick winners, type how many to pick and press Randomize. No line is picked twice, and the winners come out in the order they were drawn. The count cannot be more than the number of items: with 2 names the page answers that you cannot pick 3.
How do I split a list into random groups?
Choose Split into groups and type the number of groups. The list is shuffled and dealt round the groups in turn, so 10 names in 3 groups give groups of 4, 3 and 3, and 25 names in 4 groups give 7, 6, 6 and 6. Each group is written as a heading such as Group 1 (4), then its names one per line, with a blank line before the next group, so Copy pastes it straight into a document or chat.
Is the list randomizer really random?
Each swap index comes from 32-bit words of crypto.getRandomValues, and a word is used only when it falls below the largest multiple of the range, so no position is favoured. That makes every order equally likely, but the page is not an audited draw: nothing records the result, and pressing Randomize again gives a new one.
How long can the list be?
10,000 lines or 500,000 characters, whichever comes first. A longer list gets a message asking you to shorten it instead of a result.

Random orders, winners and teams

Teachers use it to set a presentation order or split a class into teams, organisers to draw names for a small giveaway, and anyone to put a to-do list or a reading list in random order. Paste one item per line and choose Shuffle the list, Pick winners (how many, no name twice) or Split into groups (how many groups). Winners come out in the order they were drawn, so picking 3 from a class list also gives you first, second and third.

Fisher-Yates over the browser's crypto generator

Shuffle is a Fisher-Yates shuffle: from the last position down to the second, swap the item with one chosen uniformly from the positions up to it. Each choice uses 32-bit words from crypto.getRandomValues with rejection sampling: a word is used only when it falls below the largest multiple of the range, then index = word mod range, so no position is favoured. Pick winners runs the same swaps for the first positions only; Split into groups shuffles, then deals the items round the groups in turn, so group sizes differ by at most one.

Example: 10 names in 3 groups give groups of 4, 3 and 3; 25 names in 4 groups give 7, 6, 6 and 6.

Lines are trimmed and blank lines are skipped before anything is drawn. Up to 10,000 lines or 500,000 characters are accepted. The result is cleared when the list or an option changes.

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