How to write a function to scramble letters?

How would I create a function called 'wordScramble', which will randomly scramble letters in a word. The function accepts as an input a string of any length and returns a string with the same length as the input string, but with the characters randomly scrambled.

For example, if I input wordScramble('Hello') and it returned ans= l o e l H

Answer 1

[Joseph Cheng]

You can use the function randperm() to generate a random permutation of the indexes. so then you would use the random permutation to reorder the string array

[computing6]

I don't think we've learned that function in my computing course

[Joseph Cheng]

Well since its homework what have you tried or thought up of? I find these problems are not just about learning the syntax but ways to get you to think of creative ways to tackle the problem. What have you learned and what functions are you allowed to use?

Putting my TA hat on maybe this hint would help. you probably know how to make a for loop, generate a random number, and take items away from an array/put things into another array. using just these three methods would get your scrambling function.

[Image Analyst]

So learn now . What's wrong with learning new things?

[computing6]

Haven't thought up anything, really. I've watched a bunch of For Loop tutorials to try and use that to help me figure it out, but I just don't really know where to even begin. I've felt pretty lost all semester in my class :(

[computing6]

Well, since we haven't learned it in lecture, I don't think I can use that on my exam or homework

[Joseph Cheng]

Okay so... I'll only provide an outline so your function would look something like this.

 function scrambled = wordScramble(Oword)
   totNum = total number of letters using functions like length() or size();

   while totNum does not equal 0 
       randindex = random number from 1 to totNum;
       %using the randindex to add the letter to scrambled.
       %using randindex remove that index from Oword.
       totNum = totNum-1
   end

While this is one way to do it there are multiple ways to accomplish the scrambling using basic Matlab calls. Maybe use rand and loops to perform a mixing like the shell game aka Thimblerig.

I'm not sure if it is the best way but one method is to write out an outline, like i have above, of what you're trying to accomplish.

[Image Analyst]

I would ask your instructor explicitly if you are, or are not, allowed to use other functions that you've learned about on your own outside of class.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

Well, try this:

string = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'
scrambledString = [];
while length(string) > 0
  % Get a random location in string.
  index = randi(length(string), 1);
  % Append that to scrambledString.
  scrambledString = [scrambledString, string(index)];
  % Remove that letter from string.
  string(index) = [];
end
% Show in the command window.
scrambledString

In the command window:

string =
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
scrambledString =
fcjknpbhwaytorgqzmselvuidx

Hopefully I didn't just do the entire homework question for you or you'd be plagiarizing. If it was homework, you were supposed to add the "homework" tag to it up below your question but I didn't see that.

[computing6]

It's not homework! These are practice questions to work through to review for our final, so it's nothing I will be receiving credit for

Thank you!!

Answer 3

[Emil Latypov]

word = 'fantastic'
newword = wordscramble(word)

function newword = wordscramble(word)
  if isempty(word)
     newword = '';
  else
     len = length(word);
     k = randi(len);
     ch = word(k);
     word(k) = [];
     newword = [ch wordscramble(word)];
  end
end