Rubik's Cube scrambler giving all of the same move

November 23, 2023

I am new to JavaScript loops, and I am making a Rubik’s Cube scrambler. It generates random moves and displays them fine, but all of them are the same move. I think there is a way of fixing it by having 20 scramble variables but it would be inefficient and too long. Is there any compact way of fixing this? This is my code:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Speedcubing Timer</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@4.3.1/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-ggOyR0iXCbMQv3Xipma34MD+dH/1fQ784/j6cY/iJTQUOhcWr7x9JvoRxT2MZw1T" crossorigin="anonymous">
    <style>
        * {
            padding:20px;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>CubeTimer v1.0</h1>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-xs-5">
            <h1>Scramble</h1>
            <h3 id="scramble"></h1>
        </div>
    </div>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.slim.min.js" integrity="sha384-q8i/X+965DzO0rT7abK41JStQIAqVgRVzpbzo5smXKp4YfRvH+8abtTE1Pi6jizo" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script>
let scramble = Math.floor(Math.random() * 12);
function scramble_translator() {
    if (scramble <= 1) {
        scramble = 'R '
    } else if (scramble > 1 && scramble <= 2) {
        scramble = 'R\' '
    } else if (scramble > 2 && scramble <= 3) {
        scramble = 'U '
    } else if (scramble > 3 && scramble <= 4) {
        scramble = 'U\' '
    } else if (scramble > 4 && scramble <= 5) {
        scramble = 'L '
    } else if (scramble > 5 && scramble <= 6) {
        scramble = 'L\' '
    } else if (scramble > 6 && scramble <= 7) {
        scramble = 'F '
    } else if (scramble > 7 && scramble <= 8) {
        scramble = 'F\' '
    } else if (scramble > 8 && scramble <= 9) {
        scramble = 'D '
    } else if (scramble > 9 && scramble <= 10) {
        scramble = 'D\' '
    } else if (scramble > 10 && scramble <= 11) {
        scramble = 'B '
    } else if (scramble > 11 && scramble <= 12) {
        scramble = 'B\' '
    }

    document.getElementById('scramble').innerHTML += scramble;
}
for (let i = 0; i < 20; i++) {
    scramble_translator();
}
</script>
</body>
</html>

>Solution :

Move random generation code into scramble_translator.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Speedcubing Timer</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@4.3.1/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-ggOyR0iXCbMQv3Xipma34MD+dH/1fQ784/j6cY/iJTQUOhcWr7x9JvoRxT2MZw1T" crossorigin="anonymous">
    <style>
        * {
            padding:20px;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>CubeTimer v1.0</h1>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-xs-5">
            <h1>Scramble</h1>
            <h3 id="scramble"></h1>
        </div>
    </div>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.slim.min.js" integrity="sha384-q8i/X+965DzO0rT7abK41JStQIAqVgRVzpbzo5smXKp4YfRvH+8abtTE1Pi6jizo" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script>
function scramble_translator() {
    let scramble = Math.floor(Math.random() * 12);
    if (scramble <= 1) {
        scramble = 'R '
    } else if (scramble > 1 && scramble <= 2) {
        scramble = 'R\' '
    } else if (scramble > 2 && scramble <= 3) {
        scramble = 'U '
    } else if (scramble > 3 && scramble <= 4) {
        scramble = 'U\' '
    } else if (scramble > 4 && scramble <= 5) {
        scramble = 'L '
    } else if (scramble > 5 && scramble <= 6) {
        scramble = 'L\' '
    } else if (scramble > 6 && scramble <= 7) {
        scramble = 'F '
    } else if (scramble > 7 && scramble <= 8) {
        scramble = 'F\' '
    } else if (scramble > 8 && scramble <= 9) {
        scramble = 'D '
    } else if (scramble > 9 && scramble <= 10) {
        scramble = 'D\' '
    } else if (scramble > 10 && scramble <= 11) {
        scramble = 'B '
    } else if (scramble > 11 && scramble <= 12) {
        scramble = 'B\' '
    }

    document.getElementById('scramble').innerHTML += scramble;
}
for (let i = 0; i < 20; i++) {
    scramble_translator();
}
</script>
</body>
</html>

You can make your code shorter like this:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>Speedcubing Timer</title>
    <link rel="stylesheet" href="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/bootstrap@4.3.1/dist/css/bootstrap.min.css" integrity="sha384-ggOyR0iXCbMQv3Xipma34MD+dH/1fQ784/j6cY/iJTQUOhcWr7x9JvoRxT2MZw1T" crossorigin="anonymous">
    <style>
        * {
            padding:20px;
        }
    </style>
</head>
<body>
<h1>CubeTimer v1.0</h1>
    <div class="row">
        <div class="col-xs-5">
            <h1>Scramble</h1>
            <h3 id="scramble"></h1>
        </div>
    </div>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-3.3.1.slim.min.js" integrity="sha384-q8i/X+965DzO0rT7abK41JStQIAqVgRVzpbzo5smXKp4YfRvH+8abtTE1Pi6jizo" crossorigin="anonymous"></script>
<script>
function scramble_translator() {
    let scramble = Math.floor(Math.random() * 12);
    const table = ['R','R\'','U','U\'','L','L\'','F','F\'','D','D\'','B','B\'',];

    document.getElementById('scramble').innerHTML += table[scramble] + ' ';
}
for (let i = 0; i < 20; i++) {
    scramble_translator();
}
</script>
</body>
</html>