Array containing function variables

Question

Wasn't sure how to title what I'm looking for properly so I'll try and explain

I have a function

function cat(name, job, height){
 console.log(name);
}

and I'm trying to randomise the 3 variables using the following code

let Array = ['jim, cook, 5','nick, dog, 2'];
const RandomMake = Math.floor(Math.random() * Array.length);
let Random = Array[RandomMake];

so say Random output's jim, cook, 5 i'd like to use those variables within my function.

cat(Random);

Obviously I'm not making a cat generator but it explains what I need. I can't randomise each individual value it must be the group of items (name job height). I'm not sure if this is possible or if i'm just forgetting about a function that will allow me to do this. But it's definitely puzzled me... Thanks in advance for the help :) Always learning.

CertainPerformance · Accepted Answer · 2020-08-26 04:01:41Z

3

You can split the randomly selected string by , and spread the result into the call of cat:

function cat(name, job, height){
 console.log(name);
}
const arr = ['jim, cook, 5','nick, dog, 2'];
const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * arr.length);
const randomItem = arr[randomIndex];
cat(...randomItem.split(', '));

But, if possible, it would make a bit better organizational sense to have array of objects rather than an array of strings:

function cat({ name, job, height }){
 console.log(name);
}
const arr = [{
  name: 'jim',
  job: 'cook',
  height: 5
}, {
  name: 'nick',
  job: 'dog',
  height: 2,
}];
const randomIndex = Math.floor(Math.random() * arr.length);
const randomItem = arr[randomIndex];
cat(randomItem);

Also, you should avoid declaring a variable named Array - this will shadow the global window.Array, which could easily cause problems. Best to give the variable a different name, like arr.

answered Aug 26, 2020 at 4:01

CertainPerformance

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2 Comments

Charlie Simon Over a year ago

Yeah, awesome thanks! I'm working with an automated api so it's proven easier just to paste in strings instead of making an array of objects. And yea I should've picked up on that before posting haha that was only an example :) I'll Accept in 5 min (need to wait for the cool down)

CertainPerformance Over a year ago

Sure, if you have to write out a whole lot of things, I can understand using strings. If you need to go that route, you could make things even easier (syntactically) by using a multi-line template literal that you then split by newlines to create the random array. It'll be a bit less mistake-prone than something like ['jim, cook, 5','nick, dog, 2'] with a lot of items.

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