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Compute every combination of 6 numbers

I'm more of a media developer and not the best coder, but I find myself needing to learn javascript better. I'm creating a math card game where the human player and the automated player are each dealt 6 cards. Each player must combine (concatenate) three of the cards to make a top number and the other three for the bottom number. Those two numbers are then subtracted. For the automated player, I have to go through ever possible combination of the six cards, so when the two numbers are subtracted, it gets as close as possible to a target number. I'm not very good with arrays, so I started testing every possible combination and then comparing which one was closer (See example below). This is a very inefficient way of coding this, but I'm just not sure how to do it otherwise. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The variables have already been declared.
alienTopNum = "" + alienNum1 + alienNum2 + alienNum3;
alienBottomNum = "" + alienNum4 + alienNum5 + alienNum6;
oldDiff = targetNum - (alienTopNum - alienBottomNum);
player.SetVar("AC1R1", alienNum1);
player.SetVar("AC2R1", alienNum2);
player.SetVar("AC3R1", alienNum3);
player.SetVar("AC4R1", alienNum4);
player.SetVar("AC4R1", alienNum5);
player.SetVar("AC4R1", alienNum6);
player.SetVar("ATR1", alienTopNum - alienBottomNum);
alienTopNum = "" + alienNum1 + alienNum2 + alienNum3;
alienBottomNum = "" + alienNum4 + alienNum6 + alienNum5;
newDiff = targetNum - (alienTopNum - alienBottomNum);
if (Math.abs(newDiff) < Math.abs(oldDiff)) {
oldDiff = newDiff;
player.SetVar("AC1R1", alienNum1);
player.SetVar("AC2R1", alienNum2);
player.SetVar("AC3R1", alienNum3);
player.SetVar("AC4R1", alienNum4);
player.SetVar("AC4R1", alienNum6);
player.SetVar("AC4R1", alienNum5);
player.SetVar("ATR1", alienTopNum - alienBottomNum);
}
etc....

Store the dealt cards in an array rather than in individual variables, because that makes them a lot easier to handle when generating permutations. You don't say what values the cards can have, but as an example, given a "hand" of [1,2,3,4,5,6] if you get the permutations as an array of arrays:
[ [1,2,3,4,5,6], [1,2,3,4,6,5], [1,2,3,5,4,6], ...etc. ]
Then you can loop through that to process each permutation to take the first three "cards" and last three to get the current iteration's two numbers, subtract them, and see if the result is closer to the target than previous iterations' results.
The following does that, making use of the array permutation function that I found in this answer to another question. I'm not going to explain that algorithm because you can easily google up various permutation algorithms for yourself, but I have put comments in my bestPlay() function to explain how I process the permutations to figure out which is the best score for a hand.
I haven't tried to use your player or player.SetVar() method, but hopefully if you study this you can adapt it to use with your objects.
You didn't say what values the cards could have, so I've assumed a deck of twenty cards that repeats the numbers 0-9 twice.
function bestPlay(hand, target) {
var perms = permutator(hand); // Get all permutations for hand
var best = perms[0]; // Use the first as initial best
var bestDiff = difference(best);
for (var i = 1; i < perms.length; i++) { // Loop over the rest of the permutations
var diff = difference(perms[i]); // Get diff for current permutation
if (Math.abs(target - diff) < Math.abs(target - bestDiff)) { // Check if
best = perms[i]; // current beats previous best
bestDiff = diff; // and if so make it new best
}
}
// Output the results for this hand:
console.log(`Hand: ${hand.join(" ")}`);
console.log(`Best Numbers: ${best.slice(0,3).join("")} ${best.slice(3).join("")}`);
console.log(`Difference: ${bestDiff}`);
}
var hands = deal();
var target = 112;
console.log(`Target: ${target}`);
bestPlay(hands[1], target);
bestPlay(hands[2], target);
function difference(cards) {
return Math.abs(cards.slice(0,3).join("") - cards.slice(3).join(""));
}
function deal() {
var cards = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0];
// shuffle
cards.sort(function() { return Math.random() - 0.5; });
// first hand is first six cards, second hand is next six
return {
1: cards.slice(0,6),
2: cards.slice(6, 12)
};
}
function permutator(inputArr) {
var results = [];
function permute(arr, memo) {
var cur, memo = memo || [];
for (var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
cur = arr.splice(i, 1);
if (arr.length === 0) {
results.push(memo.concat(cur));
}
permute(arr.slice(), memo.concat(cur));
arr.splice(i, 0, cur[0]);
}
return results;
}
return permute(inputArr);
}
If you click the "Run Code Snippet" button several times you'll see that sometimes a given hand has a combination of numbers that exactly matches the target, sometimes it doesn't.

How to sort elements of array in natural order with mixed (letters and numbers) elements

i am trying to create google-form which is used to register students agreements on practice. Every agreement is registered and got agreement number which format is Last to digits of current year-T-number of agreement at this year/M. For example for now it is 17-T-11/M. The number of agreement currently is written by person which is responsible for practice.
Here is code of script below:
function onChange(e)
{
var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheets()[1];
var range = sheet.getDataRange();
var values = range.getValues();
var comboValues = ['16-T-105/M'];
// removing titles from 0 column and 1 line (titles)
for (var i = 1; i <= values.length; i++) {
var v = values[i] && values[i][0];
v && comboValues.push(v)
}
// Sort the values
comboValues.sort(
function(a, b) {
if (b.toLowerCase() < a.toLowerCase()) return -1;
if (b.toLowerCase() > a.toLowerCase()) return 1;
return 0;
}
);
Logger.log(comboValues);
// google-form modification
var form = FormApp.openById('1SHgVIosoE34m9cny9EQySljvgnRpzffdFEZe-kzNOzA');
var items = form.getItems();
for (i = 4; i < items.length; i++) {
Logger.log("ID: " + items[i].getId(), ': ' + items[i].getType());
}
form.getItemById('2087613006').asListItem().setChoiceValues(comboValues);
I got issue which is related with lexicographical order. Person which register agreement choose from list last registered agreement number: i tryed to do that last registered agreement number will always be at list top. As time when i started this everything was fine (it started with number 16-T-105/M), but new year come and soon after 17-T-10/M agreement was registered i got issue, that 17-T-10/M was not on list top. Soon i realised that this happens because script use lexicographical order and "thinks" that 2 is more than 10. So i understood that i somehow will have to change that order and do that 2 is less than 10, 11 is less than 101 and so on.
My question is how to do that? I guess that i need to sort array elements in natural order - but i do not have idea how to do this.
I tryed to google how to do it , but result was not satisfactory - maybe my knowledge of coding is pretty limited (i am PhD student of Psychology, not Informatics) :)
Maybe someone will help how to solve that problem.
Updates:
Link to spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1FH5qYTrLUNI2SCrcaqlwgu8lzAylaTkZsiALg0zIpCM/edit#gid=1620956794
Link to google-form (Copy of actual form): https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSerJfkv1dgHexUwxppXNyhb46twOZgvEMOIVXSOJoED3SLmyQ/viewform

You should adjust the sorting method to account of the peculiarities of the data. Here is one way to do this: the function splitConvert processes each string, splitting it by non-word characters and then converting what can be converted to integers (and lowercasing the rest). Then the comparison goes through this array one by one.
comboValues.sort(
function(a, b) {
var as = splitConvert(a);
var bs = splitConvert(b);
for (var i = 0; i < as.length; i++) {
if (bs[i] < as[i]) return -1;
if (bs[i] > as[i]) return 1;
}
return 0;
}
);
function splitConvert(str) {
return str.split(/\W/).map(function(part) {
var x = parseInt(part, 10);
return isNaN(x) ? part.toLowerCase() : x;
});
}
This is not the most performance-oriented solution: the split-parse function will be repeatedly called on the same strings as they are being sorted. If this becomes an issue (I don't really think so), one can optimize by having one run of conversion, creating an array of arrays, and then sorting that.

Dynamic array using variable

I am trying to dynamically access arrays, otherwise I would have to duplicate my code, when in reality the only difference would be buildablesets1 and buildablesets2.
var buildablesets1 = [""];
var buildablesets2 = [""];
var buildablesetsx = "buildablesets" + playerturn;
for (var i = 0; i < set.length; i++) {
if (doesOwnSet('player'+playerturn, set[i])) {
if(playerturn===1) buildablesets1.push(set[i]);
}
}
if (buildablesetsx.length > 1){
var b = $("#buildsets"+playerturn);
for (k = 1; k < buildablesetsx.length; k++){
b.append("<option value='" + buildablesetsx[k]+ "'>" + buildablesetsx[k] + "</option>");
}
}
The code pushes any sets owned by the player to buildablesetsX. Then the dropdown box #buildsetsX is populated with all the owned sets.
1. How do I get the effect of buildablesetsX where X depends on the players turn.
2. I want to depopulate the dropdown box on each turn otherwise it will duplicate, since it is appending. (would apreciate a better way of doing this, ideally I want to populate the dropdown box only if there is a new set).
Plus sorry I understand that this question has been asked before, but I didnt understand the answers or the question exactly.

Any time you find yourself creating variables with sequential numbers, and wanting to access them dynamically, what you really should be using is an array. In this case, you should use a two-dimensional array:
var buildablesets = [[""], [""]];
The first dimension is the player number, the second dimension is the list of sets that player has built.
To access a particular player's sets, do:
buildablesetsx = buildablesets[playerturn];
The rest of your code will work as you've written it, with the above variable assignment.

How to keep Javascript array sorted, without sorting it

I have a Node.js application where I have to very often do following things:
- check if particular array already contains certain element
- if element does exist, update it
- if element do not exist, push it to the array and then sort it using underscore _.sortBy
For checking if the element already exists in the array, I use this binary search function:
http://oli.me.uk/2013/06/08/searching-javascript-arrays-with-a-binary-search/
In this way, when the size of the array grows, the sorting becomes slower and slower.
I assume that the array size might grow to max 20 000 items per user. And eventually there will be thousands of users. The array is sorted by a key, which is quite a short string. It can be converted into integer if needed.
So, I would require a better way to keep the array sorted,
in stead of sorting it every time new element is pushed onto it.
So, my question is, how should/could I edit the binary search algorithm I use, to enable me to
get the array index where the new element should be placed, if it doesn't already exist in the array?
Or what other possibilities there would be to achieve this. Of course, I could use some kind of loop that would start from the beginning and go through the array until it would find the place for the new element.
All the data is stored in MongoDB.
In other words, I would like to keep the array sorted without sorting it every time a new element is pushed.

It's easy to modify this binaryIndexOf function to return an index of the next element when no matches found:
function binaryFind(searchElement) {
'use strict';
var minIndex = 0;
var maxIndex = this.length - 1;
var currentIndex;
var currentElement;
while (minIndex <= maxIndex) {
currentIndex = (minIndex + maxIndex) / 2 | 0; // Binary hack. Faster than Math.floor
currentElement = this[currentIndex];
if (currentElement < searchElement) {
minIndex = currentIndex + 1;
}
else if (currentElement > searchElement) {
maxIndex = currentIndex - 1;
}
else {
return { // Modification
found: true,
index: currentIndex
};
}
}
return { // Modification
found: false,
index: currentElement < searchElement ? currentIndex + 1 : currentIndex
};
}
So, now it returns objects like:
{found: false, index: 4}
where index is an index of the found element, or the next one.
So, now insertion of a new element will look like:
var res = binaryFind.call(arr, element);
if (!res.found) arr.splice(res.index, 0, element);
Now you may add binaryFind to Array.prototype along with some helper for adding new elements:
Array.prototype.binaryFind = binaryFind;
Array.prototype.addSorted = function(element) {
var res = this.binaryFind(element);
if (!res.found) this.splice(res.index, 0, element);
}

If your array is already sorted and you want to insert an element, to keep it sorted you need to insert it at a specific place in the array. Luckily arrays have a method that can do that:
Array.prototype.splice
So, once you get the index you need to insert at (you should get by a simple modification to your binary search), you can do:
myArr.splice(myIndex,0,myObj);
// myArr your sorted array
// myIndex the index of the first item larger than the one you want to insert
// myObj the item you want to insert
EDIT: The author of your binary search code has the same idea:
So if you wanted to insert a value and wanted to know where you should
put it, you could run the function and use the returned number to
splice the value into the array.
Source

I know this is an answer to an old question, but the following is very simple using javascripts array.splice().
function inOrder(arr, item) {
/* Insert item into arr keeping low to high order */
let ix = 0;
while (ix < arr.length) {
//console.log('ix',ix);
if (item < arr[ix]) { break; }
ix++;
}
//console.log(' insert:', item, 'at:',ix);
arr.splice(ix,0,item);
return arr
}
The order can be changed to high to low by inverting the test

Non repeating array number (which is added twice or more with Jquery

I know the question about obtaining a random number with javascript (non repeating) is often asked but in my case I append the same jquery code twice or three time and I would like to obtain different information each time.
First i have a large array (150 items) which is built this way :
var arr = [
{
"Numéro": "1",
"Chinois": "爱",
"Pinyin": "ài",
"Français": "aimer, affection, apprécier",
"Classificateurs": ""
},
Then I found on another post this random function :
while(arr.length < 150){
var randomnumber=Math.ceil(Math.random()*147)
var found=false;
for(var i=0;i<arr.length;i++){
if(arr[i]==randomnumber){found=true;break}
}
if(!found)arr[arr.length]=randomnumber;
}
Then I append the array information (I tried randomly - It's a flashcard kind of page so on click, the next "index" should be randomized and unique) on the page :
$('#qcm-az, .suivantQcm1').on ('click', function(qcmaz){
$('#reponse1').html(arr[index].Français);
$('#reponse2').html(arr[147 -Math.floor((Math.random() * 23)+1)].Français);
$('#reponse3').html(arr[99 - Math.floor((Math.random() * 65)+1)].Français);
$('#reponse4').html(arr[43 - Math.floor((Math.random() * 21)+1)].Français);
index = randomnumber;
});
So basically on page load or (if the next arrow is clicked) I would like the "index = randomnumber" to be ran once again but it seems stuck (because the random number seems allocated once and for all).
Finally you can see that, on my different divs, I'm using a not so random function to get a different index number. I often encounter a problem which is that the "good answer" (reponse1) is the same as in one of the "wrong answer" (reponse2,3 or 4).
I hope I explained myself clearly - I'm beginning in Javascript/Jquery. Thank you in advance.
Edit : I added a fiddle to show you the problem (just click on the body to move to next item - which is stuck after one click here)
http://jsfiddle.net/Hv8SD/

You array-shuffling algorithm is fully incorrect.
A can propose this variant:
var counter = 0, newArray = [];
while(counter < 147)
{
var randomnumber=Math.ceil(Math.random()*147 - 1)
if(!newArray[randomnumber]) // if newArray doesn't contains index `randomnumber`
{
newArray[randomnumber]=arr[counter];
counter++;
};
};
JSFiddle DEMO