I am making a bot that can respond to my messages.
If i send Hi! to the bot, it will answer With Well, hello there!. I was just wondering, what do I do to give the bot multiple choices of answers? Is there a way to pick a random item from a responses array using JavaScript?
Use Math.random * the length of the array, rounded down, as an index into the array.
Like this:
var answers = [
"Hey",
"Howdy",
"Hello There",
"Wotcha",
"Alright gov'nor"
]
var randomAnswer = answers[Math.floor(Math.random() * answers.length)];
console.log(randomAnswer);You can use the _.sample method in lodash:
var responses = ["Well, hello there!", "Hello", "Hola", "Yo!", "What’s up?", "Hey there."];
console.log(_.sample(responses));<script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/lodash.js/4.17.11/lodash.min.js"></script>I can think of two ways:
Method 1:
const answers = [ "Hey", "Howdy", "Hello There", "Wotcha", "Alright gov'nor" ]; const randomlyPickedString=answers[Math.floor(Math.random() * answers.length)]; console.log(randomlyPickedString);
Method 2:
const answers = [ "Hey", "Howdy", "Hello There", "Wotcha", "Alright gov'nor" ] ;
const randomlyPickedString=answers[Math.floor(random(1, 5))-1]; console.log(randomlyPickedString);
For ease of understanding the code, I have written created an extra variable(randomlyPickedString). You can use the code without it too.
There's no JavaScript "command" that allows you to do this. But what you can do, is pick an integer at random from 0 to the length of the array, and get the array of responses at that index:
var response = responses[ parseInt( Math.random() * responses.length ) ];
A more concise way to do this is:
var response = responses[ Math.random() * responses.length |0 ];
where | 0 indicates the bitwise-or with 0, which in this case just turns a floating point number (Math.random() returns values from 0 to 1) into its lowest integer
|0
You would first need an array of possible responses. Something like this:
var responses = ["Well hello there!","Hello","Hola!"];
You can then use the Math.random function. This function returns a decimal < 1, so you will need to convert it to an integer.
var responses = ["Well hello there!","Hello","Hola!"];
var responseIndex = Math.floor((Math.random() * 10) + 1);
Also, use the modulus (%) operator to keep your random number within the confines of your array indexes:
var responses = ["Well hello there!","Hello","Hola!"];
var totalResponses = responses.length;
var responseIndex = Math.floor((Math.random() * 10) + 1) % totalResponses;
Finally, lookup your random response in the array:
var responses = ["Well hello there!","Hello","Hola!"];
var totalResponses = responses.length;
var responseIndex = Math.floor((Math.random() * 10) + 1) % totalResponses;
var response = responses[responseIndex];
alert(response);
Math.Random