poker hand generator

**JoeForts** · Mar 26, 2007, 12:12

I know theirs gotta be hundreds of ways to go about this. I'm trying to to generate just 5 numbers on my screen...with a unicode of course. I have that part done, got my cards appearing with a different suit....

but the next thing I want to do is sort them....from left to right Ace - King order. No clue how to go about this.

Heres what I have.

var suit = new Array(4);
suit[1] = "\u2663";
suit[2] = "\u2660";
suit[3] = "\u2665";
suit[4] = "\u2666";

var card = new Array(13);
card[1] = "A";
card[2] = "2";
card[3] = "3";
card[4] = "4";
card[5] = "5";
card[6] = "6";
card[7] = "7";
card[8] = "8";
card[9] = "9";
card[10] = "10";
card[11] = "J";
card[12] = "Q";
card[13] = "K";

var ranNum1 = Math.floor(13*Math.random()) + 1;
var ranNum2 = Math.floor(13*Math.random()) + 1;
var ranNum3 = Math.floor(13*Math.random()) + 1;
var ranNum4 = Math.floor(13*Math.random()) + 1;
var ranNum5 = Math.floor(13*Math.random()) + 1;
var ranSuit1 = Math.floor(4*Math.random()) + 1;
var ranSuit2 = Math.floor(4*Math.random()) + 1;
var ranSuit3 = Math.floor(4*Math.random()) + 1;
var ranSuit4 = Math.floor(4*Math.random()) + 1;
var ranSuit5 = Math.floor(4*Math.random()) + 1;

document.write("<center><font size='12'><table border='2' bordercolor='black' style='background-color:green' cellpadding='6'><tr>");
document.write(card[ranNum1], suit[ranSuit1]);
document.write(card[ranNum2], suit[ranSuit2]);
document.write(card[ranNum3], suit[ranSuit3]);
document.write(card[ranNum4], suit[ranSuit4]);
document.write(card[ranNum5], suit[ranSuit5]);
document.write("</tr></table></font></center>");

the table doesn't work either....it just gives a line under each number and suit.

**Kravvitz** · Mar 26, 2007, 15:10

1) You forgot to put in table-cells:

Code:

document.write('<td>', card[ranNum1], suit[ranSuit1], '</td>');
document.write('<td>', card[ranNum2], suit[ranSuit2], '</td>');
document.write('<td>', card[ranNum3], suit[ranSuit3], '</td>');
document.write('<td>', card[ranNum4], suit[ranSuit4], '</td>');
document.write('<td>', card[ranNum5], suit[ranSuit5], '</td>');

2) Tag soup. <table>s may not be placed inside <font> elements. Lose the <font> element. This is a bit old, but much of what it says is relevant -- What's wrong with the FONT element?
What should you use instead of the FONT element? Beyond the FONT tag: Practical HTML text styling

Lose the <center> element. Four ways to Center Elements with CSS (in IE5+/Win and other browsers)

3) As for sorting, I suppose the best way would be to use an array instead of separate variables. This shows how to sort an array.

**jimfraser** · Mar 26, 2007, 15:19

Yeah well I like poker too, and I'm not terrible at javascript so check this out:

Code:

<html>
<head>
<title></title>
<script type="text/javascript">
function sortCards(a,b) {
	// sort by card order, if the 2 cards are the same sort by suit order
	if (a.rank.order > b.rank.order) {
		return 1;
	} else if (a.rank.order < b.rank.order) {
		return -1;
	} else {
		if (a.suit.order > b.suit.order) {
			return 1;
		} else if (a.suit.order < b.suit.order) {
			return -1;
		} else {
			return 0;
		}
	}
}

// the possible suits, name, symbol, color and order
var suits = [
	{name:"clubs", symbol:"\u2663", color:"black", order:1},
	{name:"diamonds", symbol:"\u2666", color:"red", order:2},
	{name:"hearts", symbol:"\u2665", color:"red", order:3},
	{name:"spades", symbol:"\u2660", color:"black", order:4}
];

// the possible ranks, symbol and order
var ranks = [
	{symbol:"A", order:1},
	{symbol:"2", order:2},
	{symbol:"3", order:3},
	{symbol:"4", order:4},
	{symbol:"5", order:5},
	{symbol:"6", order:6},
	{symbol:"7", order:7},
	{symbol:"8", order:8},
	{symbol:"9", order:9},
	{symbol:"10", order:10},
	{symbol:"J", order:11},
	{symbol:"Q", order:12},
	{symbol:"K", order:13}
];	

// we construct a deck array that contains the 52 possible cards
var deck = [];

for (var i=0; i < suits.length; i++) {
	for (var j=0; j < ranks.length; j++) {
		var card = {rank: ranks[j], suit: suits[i]};
		deck.push(card);
	}
}

// hand array to store the cards we have been "dealt"
var hand = [];

// pick 5 random cards from the deck, removing each one so we dont get duplicates and our odds are correct for the next card
for (var i=0; i < 5; i++) {
	var cardIndex = Math.floor(deck.length * Math.random());
	var card = deck[cardIndex];
	
	// REMOVE card from deck
	deck.splice(cardIndex,1);
	
	// add card to the hand
	hand.push(card);
}

// sort the hand array using the sortCards function (sorts by rank then suit)
hand.sort(sortCards);

// display the hand array
for (var i=0; i < hand.length; i++) {
	var card = hand[i];
	document.write("<span style='color:" + card.suit.color + "'>" + card.rank.symbol + card.suit.symbol + "</span> ");
}
</script>
</head>
<body>
</body>
</html>