JavaScript - get multiple random elements from array

In this article, we would like to show you how to get multiple random elements from array in JavaScript.

Quick solution:

// ONLINE-RUNNER:browser;

const array = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd'];
const n = 2; // number of elements we want to get
const shuffledArray = array.sort(() => 0.5 - Math.random()); // shuffles array
const result = shuffledArray.slice(0, n); // gets first n elements after shuffle

console.log(result);

Note:

This solution is not optimal for large arrays, since the slice() method creates a copy of the array.

Alternative solutions

There are two optimal solutions to this problem, depending on the case we are considering:

1. getting unique elements from an array (unique indexes) - see the article,
2. getting unique values from an array - see the article.

References

1. Math.random() - JavaScript | MDN
2. Array.prototype.sort() - JavaScript | MDN
3. Array.prototype.slice() - JavaScript | MDN