I was looking for a system to select a random number out of a predefined set, which can - via the gui - be set and modified at runtime. Since i didn't instantly found something which does this in the library, i've created something myself.

This patch contains :

• 16 toggles (labeled 0..15)
• one subpatch called SelectiveRandom : this patch takes a bang to give you a new randomly picked number out of your selected toggles.

You can just copy/paste this into your patch and use it straigth away. Just don't rename the toggles, or it won't work anymore.

Enjoy it,

Domien

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/DHO-SelectiveRandomizer.pd

Couldn't you use a bank of radio buttons instead to make it easier on yourself?

A radiobutton strip wouldn't allow me what i'm trying to do here, because you can only select 1 item out of it. With the toggles i can select whatever combination i want.

Ah ok I think I misunderstood the functionality of the patch

I had a go at this myself to see if it could be done any simpler. I like the way you used the array to handle the elements, but in mine I tried a different method which isn't all that much simpler but maybe you'll find it useful.

PD is pretty awkward for this sort of problem because it isn't very easy to set up nested loops and decisions that would be easy in other languages:

for each element in boolean array:
---if element == 1
------randomnum = randomnum - 1;
------if randomnum < 0
---------return index of current element
------end if
---end if
end

Anyways, that's the algorithm that I tried to use, but it ends up being pretty well hard-coded and inflexible, but that's PD for you sometimes. Adding another array elements means copy-pasting a bunch of subpatches and renaming them, but I tried to make this a bit less painful by making the connections between the elements in the [pd checkElements] subpatch straightforward.

let me know what you think

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/Mnemonic-SelRandomizer.pd

Hey mnemonic,

that's definitely a more efficient and elegant solution. For me the smartest part of your patch is that you count the integer values of the toggles to determine the max random. About the hardcoded stuff, it often seems hard to avoid that.

I always try to use tables to do a lot of things in pd, thereby (sometimes) missing the simpler solutions. I've already contemplated to refresh my c knowledge and start writing externals myself, but then i wouldn't be making music as much as i do now

Thanx anyway,

Domien