Random picker
Paste the list, choose how many to draw, and draw.
Paste a list and press Draw.
How it works
The list is shuffled with the Fisher–Yates method and the browser’s cryptographic randomness, which makes every order exactly as likely. The ones drawn are the first in the shuffled list, so nobody can be drawn twice.
Each line is one option. Blank lines and spaces at either end are ignored. A name that appears on two lines has two tickets.
Shuffle the whole list when the order itself is the point: speaking order, turns in a game, or who pairs up with whom.
The list never leaves your browser. To show the draw was fair, do it in front of others, or copy the result straight away.
How the list is shuffled
Lines are not compared with each other, not even ignoring capitals, so Anna and anna are two separate entries.
The shuffle is Fisher–Yates in the form Richard Durstenfeld published in 1964, swapping entries in place: the tool works from the last position in the list to the first, swapping each entry with a randomly chosen entry at the same or an earlier position. A list of n lines needs n − 1 random numbers. Ten lines can be ordered in 3,628,800 ways, and all are equally likely. In a test of the tool’s code, three lines were shuffled 60,000 times, and each of the six orders came up between 9,895 and 10,100 times.
Example: the same name on two lines
A list has ten lines, and Anna appears on two of them. Two winners are drawn. The chance that Anna is among the winners is 1 minus 28/45, or 37.8%, against 20% for each of the others. The chance that both winners are Anna is 1 in 45, or 2.2%. 200,000 draws with the tool’s code gave 37.80% and 2.26%.
If each person should be able to win only once, remove the duplicates before drawing, for example with the sort lines tool.
Several winners and their order
Drawing three winners at once gives the same chances as drawing one at a time without putting anyone back. Each line has a chance of the number of winners divided by the number of lines: 3 from 20 gives 15%. The winners are numbered in the order they came in the shuffled list, and that order is just as random, so one draw is enough to settle first and second prize.