How to get element value of array even if array is randomized

[Akhilesh Gupta]

Could anyone please suggest on how to fetch original data position of any element from an array even if the array gets randomized/shuffled.

e.g. my original array is: arr=[a,b,c,d,e]
and, arr[2] will return: [c]
and, after random.shuffle( arr) the output is=[c,a,e,d,b]
and, arr[2] will return: [e]

But, I still wanted to see the same result as from original array i.e. I should still get arr[2]=[c] even if I have randomized my array.

Please help in solving this query, thanks for your help on this!

Regards,
Akhilesh Gupta

[bvdet]

You will have to save the original state of the list in some manner. This is sort of convoluted but seems to work:

import random

arr=['0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5']

dd = {}
for i, item in enumerate(arr):
    dd[i] = item 
random.shuffle(arr)
print arr

i = arr.index(dd[2])

print arr[i]