collections - Is there a way to get the value of a HashMap randomly in Java?

Question

Is there a way to get the value of a HashMap randomly in Java?

Answer 1

This works:

Random generator = new Random();
Object[] values = myHashMap.values().toArray();
Object randomValue = values[generator.nextInt(values.length)];

If you want the random value to be a type other than an Object simply add a cast to the last line. So if myHashMap was declared as:

Map<Integer,String> myHashMap = new HashMap<Integer,String>();

The last line can be:

String randomValue = (String) values[generator.nextInt(value.length)];

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The below doesn't work, Set.toArray() always returns an array of Objects, which can't be coerced into an array of Map.Entry.

Random generator = new Random();
Map.Entry[] entries = myHashMap.entrySet().toArray();
randomValue = entries[generator.nextInt(entries.length)].getValue();