Simple scripting help

[Jayce]

Hello,

I'm having some issues finding a solution to my problem, i'm sure it is very easy but I'm not very good at scripting.
Let's say I have 5 ASCII objects with some value like value1, value2 etc.. I would like to take these values and use math.random function to "scramble" them randomly and write the randomly scrambled values into another set of 5 ASCII objects. Is something like that possible? Also the values cannot repeat, same value cannot be assigned to two of the new scrambled ASCII objects.

EDIT: Also separate question, is there a way to let's say I have ASCII group objects with values, in script i'd like to grp.getvalue them to val1, val2, val3 etc.. and after that use some cycle function to do the random scramble operation above? How would I make it so the cycle knows to move val1 to val2? Let me show example script which might make it more clear but definitely will NOT work.
val1 = "val1"
val2 = "val2"
val3 = "val3"

for (i=1, i<= 3, i++) do
val[i] = grp.write('1/1/[i]')
end

Basically this is exactly what I need to do with the first question above about scrambling them. I'd like to take val1,val2,val3 and randomize those values into 3 group addresses 1/1/1, 1/1/2, 1/1/3 without val1,val2 or val3 repeating in any of those 3 group addresses.
Sorry I know it makes no sense scripting wise but that's what I need to do.

Thank you in advanced!

[Erwin van der Zwart]

Well it's by far not a simple script that is why i took the challenge as i like that (:

Create your ASCII objects and add the tag "Scramble" to it and run this script to scramble all the object values without any duplicates 

Code:

-- get objects to scramble by tag
scrambled = grp.tag('Scramble')

-- set randomseed
math.randomseed(os.time())

-- function to scramble strings
function scramble(str)
  local chars = {}
  for char in str:gmatch'.[\128-\191]*' do
    table.insert(chars, {char = char, rnd = math.random()})
  end
  table.sort(chars, function(a, b) return a.rnd < b.rnd end)
  for i, v in ipairs(chars) do
    chars[i] = v.char
  end
  return table.concat(chars)
end

-- create new values table with unique values
newvalues = {}
for i, object in ipairs(scrambled) do
  -- Set max retries for unique values to avoid script lockout
  max_retry = 100
  -- Goto marker when value is already in the table or the same as old value
  ::retry::
  if #newvalues < 1 then
    value = scramble(object.value)
    if value == object.value then
      max_retry = max_retry - 1
      if max_retry < 1 then
        return
      else
      goto retry
      end
    end
  table.insert(newvalues, {address = object.address, value = value})
  else
    value = scramble(object.value)
    if value == object.value then
      max_retry = max_retry - 1
      if max_retry < 1 then
        return
      else
        goto retry
      end
    end
    for j, newvalue in ipairs(newvalues) do
      if value == newvalue.value then
        max_retry = max_retry - 1
        if max_retry < 1 then
          return
        else
          goto retry
        end
      end
    end
    table.insert(newvalues, {address = object.address, value = value})
  end
end

--Check if tables are same lenght
if #newvalues == #scrambled then
-- update objects
for _, object in ipairs(newvalues) do
   grp.checkupdate(object.address, object.value)
end
end

Still curious to your use case (:

BR,

Erwin

[admin]

@Erwin, I think you over-complicated the task there

Use this if you simply want to scramble already set values for tagged objects:

Code:

math.randomseed(os.time())

objects = grp.tag('Scramble')
values = {}

for _, obj in ipairs(objects) do
  values[ #values + 1 ] = obj.value
end

for _, obj in ipairs(objects) do
  index = math.random(1, #values)
  obj:write(values[ index ])
  table.remove(values, index)
end

[Jayce]

Thank you both guys! Works flawlessly, I've also learned some stuff too.

[Erwin van der Zwart]

@Erwin, I think you over-complicated the task there

Well i don't fully agree, your version is just rotating the values between the objects, my version is realy scrambling the values and checks there are no duplicted values at any time..

[admin]

@Erwin, sure thing The problem here is that the task is not defined clearly.

[Erwin van der Zwart]

I think both where asked