Random Picker

Three random tools in one place

This page combines the three random draws people search for most. The random number generator gives you one or more whole numbers between a minimum and a maximum, with or without repeats. The random name picker takes a pasted list and draws one or several winners. The random team generator shuffles a group and splits it into teams of nearly equal size. Switch between them with the three buttons at the top; each keeps its own settings and list while you switch.

How the numbers are drawn

Every result starts with your browser’s cryptographic random generator, which returns 32-bit random values. Turning such a value into a number between, say, 1 and 6 is where many simple generators go wrong: taking the remainder after dividing by 6 makes some results a little more likely than others, because 4,294,967,296 possible values do not split evenly into 6 groups. This tool throws away the few values from the uneven leftover block and draws again, a method called rejection sampling. The result is that every number in your range has exactly the same probability.

When repeats are off, the generator keeps drawing until it has the requested number of different values, so the outcome is the same as pulling numbered balls from a drum without putting them back. Turn on “Sort results” if you want the numbers in ascending order, which makes a list of lottery-style picks easier to read. Leave it off to keep the order in which the numbers were drawn, which matters if the first number is the first prize.

Picking names and running a giveaway

Paste names straight from a spreadsheet column, a chat or a class list: each line is one entry and empty lines are ignored. Choose how many winners you need and press Draw. The winners are picked all at once, in order, and no line can be picked twice in the same draw.

For a giveaway with several rounds, check “Remove drawn names from the list”. Each winner is taken out of the box after the draw, and the session history below the result keeps a record of every round, so you can show or copy who won what. If you prefer a visual draw that the whole room can watch, the spinning wheel does the same job with an animated wheel.

Making fair random teams

Choose “Number of teams” when you know how many groups you need, such as four tables at a workshop, or “People per team” when the size matters, such as five-a-side football. In the second case the tool works out how many teams are needed and still balances them: 11 players with 5 per team becomes three teams of 4, 4 and 3, rather than two full teams and one person on their own.

Teams are built by shuffling the whole list with the Fisher–Yates method and dealing the names out in turn. Every possible arrangement is equally likely, so nobody can predict or steer who ends up together.

Tips

• “Copy results” puts plain text on your clipboard: one number or name per line, or one team per line with its members.
• To give one person a better chance in a name draw, list them on more than one line.
• Everything runs in your browser. Names you paste are never uploaded or stored.
• For official lotteries or draws with legal rules, use a process with witnesses and records; a web page cannot provide that.