Randomize a List

How do I randomize a list?

1. Paste the list into the box, one item per line. A column copied from Excel or Google Sheets, a single line separated by commas, or a .txt or .csv file opened with Open file works as well.
2. Leave the mode on Shuffle for a new order of the whole list, or switch to Pick, Teams, Pairs or Order.
3. Press Draw, or Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac) while typing in the box. Each press uses a new seed unless you typed your own.
4. Copy the result, download it as .txt or .csv, or press Share link so others open the same draw.

Which mode do I need?

The first five modes read the same pasted list: pick the one that matches the job in front of you; the settings change, the list stays. If you came for a random list generator that makes numbers rather than reordering your own items, that has its own page, and so does shuffling inside a spreadsheet.

Can you give me a list of random items?

When there is nothing to paste, start from a ready-made list. Each of these pages keeps a fixed list, prints all of it so you can see what may come up, and draws from it with the same seeded shuffle as this page, so its results have a seed and a share link too.

• Random letters: A to Z, only vowels or only consonants, with the NATO code word for each.
• Random animals: 222 well-known animals checked in ITIS, from mammals to insects.
• Random colors: Any of the 16,777,216 hex codes or the 148 CSS named colors.
• Random countries: 195 countries by continent, each with its flag.
• Random US states: The 50 states by Census region, Washington, D.C. on request.
• Random foods: A list of 205 foods for when nobody can decide what to eat.

What does the same list look like in each mode?

Here is the sample list of 8 names from the box above, run through every mode with the same seed, K7Q2-9MXD-4HCZ. The results were computed when this page was built, by the same code your browser runs when you press Draw, so typing that seed into “Use your own seed” reproduces each line.

Shuffle

Dev, Ana, Gus, Hana, Farah, Ben, Chloe, Eli

Pick 2

Winner: Eli; Alternate 1: Dev

Teams of 3 or 2

Team 1: Dev, Hana, Chloe; Team 2: Ana, Farah, Eli; Team 3: Gus, Ben

Pairs

Dev and Ana; Gus and Hana; Farah and Ben; Chloe and Eli

Order with times

9:00 AM Dev, 9:05 AM Ana, 9:10 AM Gus, 9:15 AM Hana …

What can I paste into the list randomizer?

You rarely have to clean a list first. The box looks at what arrived and decides how to split it; the note under the box says what it did. These are the cases it handles, with the item counts the parser gives for each example.

A comma inside a multi-line list never splits a line, so “Smith, John” stays one person. Blank lines and stray spaces are dropped. Under “List options” you can also remove duplicates and strip numbering such as “1.” or “•” left over from a document.

How do I show a draw people can check?

When a room is watching, the result is only half of it; the other half is being able to show it was not picked by hand. Under every result sits a seed in a typeface where 0 and O cannot be confused. Share link puts the list, the settings and that seed into the address, and whoever opens it sees the same order recomputed on their own device, from the same seed and the same Fisher–Yates shuffle. For a giveaway, post the entry list first and the link after the draw, as the name picker page sets out step by step. The method, and what a seed can and cannot prove, is on how the draw works.

On a projector, the first result fills the right half of the screen and the rest step down in size, so the back row can read the name that matters. Press R to draw again without touching the mouse.