PHP Array Exercises : Shuffle an associative array, preserving key, value pairs

Last update on May 30 2025 13:14:50 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

26. Shuffle Associative Array Preserving Keys

Write a PHP function to shuffle an associative array, preserving key, value pairs.

Sample Solution:

PHP Code:

<?php
// Define a function to shuffle an associative array
function shuffle_assoc($my_array)
{
    // Get the keys of the associative array
    $keys = array_keys($my_array);

    // Shuffle the keys
    shuffle($keys);

    // Initialize an empty array to store the shuffled associative array
    $new = array();

    // Iterate through the shuffled keys
    foreach ($keys as $key) {
        // Assign each key-value pair to the new array in shuffled order
        $new[$key] = $my_array[$key];
    }

    // Update the original array with the shuffled result
    $my_array = $new;

    // Return the shuffled associative array
    return $my_array;
}

// Define an associative array of colors
$colors = array("color1" => "Red", "color2" => "Green", "color3" => "Yellow");

// Call the shuffle_assoc function and print the result
print_r(shuffle_assoc($colors));
?>

Output:

Array                                                       
(                                                           
    [color1] => Red                                         
    [color2] => Green                                       
    [color3] => Yellow                                      
)

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a PHP function to randomly shuffle an associative array while maintaining its key-value pairs.
Write a PHP script to create a new associative array by shuffling the keys but preserving the original key-value relationship.
Write a PHP program to implement a custom shuffle function for an associative array without losing its keys.
Write a PHP script to use a combination of array_keys() and shuffle() to reorder an associative array and then rebuild it.

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