In what situations would it be more beneficial to use a custom function like emu_shuffle() to shuffle an array in PHP, rather than relying on built-in functions like shuffle()?

In situations where you need more control over how the array is shuffled or want to implement a specific shuffling algorithm, using a custom function like emu_shuffle() would be more beneficial than relying on built-in functions like shuffle(). This allows you to tailor the shuffling process to suit your specific needs or requirements. 

function emu_shuffle($array) {
    $shuffled = [];
    while (!empty($array)) {
        $randomKey = array_rand($array);
        $shuffled[$randomKey] = $array[$randomKey];
        unset($array[$randomKey]);
    }
    return $shuffled;
}

// Example usage
$array = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5];
$shuffledArray = emu_shuffle($array);
print_r($shuffledArray);

Keywords

custom function emu_shuffle() shuffle() array PHP

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