gizmobench

Randomize a List

Paste your list into the box, press Shuffle, and the whole list comes back in a random order you can copy straight out. This page opens on the plain list screen: no sign-up, no settings to work through first, and no server involved, because the order is drawn in your browser from its own cryptographic random generator with one Fisher-Yates pass. Your list stays on the left beside the shuffled copy, and both sides count their items, so nothing can go missing without you seeing it.

Shufflednothing to shuffle yet

Paste a list on the left, then press Shuffle.

No list yet.

Every ordering equally likelyNothing dropped, nothing addedYour list stays in this browserNo account, no length limit
Items
0
Show
Separator
Keep duplicates

No draw yet. Shuffle puts the list into a random order.

Line breaks separate items by default, so a column pasted out of a spreadsheet works as it is, and a name written "Smith, John" stays one item. Switch Separator to Comma when your list is typed on one line. Shuffle again draws a fresh order from the same list, so two draws of the same list are almost never the same order.

Why this order is fair. Most list shufflers sort the list with a random comparator, which is biased: some orderings come up far more often than others, and which ones depends on the sorting algorithm the browser happens to use. This one walks a single Fisher-Yates pass instead, swapping each position with a uniformly chosen earlier one, so every possible ordering has the same chance. The index comes from crypto.getRandomValues by rejection sampling rather than a remainder, so no position in your list is favoured, and the list you pasted is copied before the pass rather than sorted in place, which is why the left pane still holds it afterwards.
Accuracy. One Fisher-Yates pass over the browser's cryptographic random generator, so every ordering is equally likely and no item is dropped, duplicated or reordered on its own. It cannot prove a draw to anyone else: the result lives in your browser and nothing is recorded.

Common questions

Is this random.org?
No. Random.org is a different site, run by other people, and this page is not connected to it in any way. What the two have in common is the job: you paste a list and it comes back in a random order. The difference is where the work happens. This page does it in your browser, so your list is never sent anywhere and the shuffle itself never needs the network, and the randomness comes from crypto.getRandomValues, the cryptographic generator built into the browser itself.
How do I randomize a list of names?
Paste or type the names into the left box, one per line, and press Shuffle. The right pane fills with the same names in a random order, and the Copy button puts that order on your clipboard as plain text, one name per line. If your names are on a single line separated by commas, switch Separator to Comma first. Shuffle again gives a fresh order from the same list, and editing the list clears the old draw so the two panes can never show a list and a shuffle that do not match.
Does it work for numbers as well as words?
Yes. An item is just a line of text, so a column of numbers, order references, ticket codes or whole sentences all shuffle the same way, and nothing is sorted, rounded or reformatted along the way: what you paste is what comes back, only in a different order. It reorders a list you already have rather than inventing one. If what you need is fresh random numbers in a range instead, the random number generator does that.
Will the same list give me the same order twice?
Almost never, and never by design. There is no seed to enter and no way to replay a previous draw: each shuffle asks the browser for new random numbers. The chance that two draws of the same list match is one in the number of possible orderings, which is one in 24 for four items and about one in 3.6 million for ten, so a short list repeating itself now and then is fairness rather than a fault.
Is my list sent to a server?
No. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and no record of the draw is kept anywhere. The text in the box and your separator choice are remembered in this browser only, so the list is still there when you return, and the Start over button above the tool forgets them.

One Fisher-Yates pass over the browser's cryptographic random generator, so every ordering is equally likely and no item is dropped, duplicated or reordered on its own. It cannot prove a draw to anyone else: the result lives in your browser and nothing is recorded.