NumPy Tutorial · NumPy Random

Random Permutation

Learn all about Random Permutation in this comprehensive tutorial.

5 min read advanced

Random Permutations of Elements

A permutation refers to an arrangement of elements. e.g. [3, 2, 1] is a permutation of [1, 2, 3] and vice-versa.

The NumPy Random module provides two methods for this: shuffle() and permutation().

Shuffle means changing arrangement of elements in-place. i.e. in the array itself.

python

from numpy import randomimport numpy as nparr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 
  4, 5])random.shuffle(arr)print(arr)

Note: The shuffle() method makes changes to the original array.

python

from numpy import randomimport numpy as nparr = np.array([1, 2, 3, 
  4, 5])print(random.permutation(arr))

Note: The permutation() method returns a re-arranged array (and leaves the original array un-changed).

Test your knowledge on this module

5 questions