Simulating GCash's Lucky Load Game with Minimal Ruby Code

If you've ever participated in a lottery, raffle, or lucky draw, you might have wondered how many possible outcomes exist. In Ruby, three powerful methods—product, combination, and sample—make calculating and generating these possibilities simple. In this post, we'll explore how to use these methods to simulate games like GCash Lucky Load and the Super Lotto 6/49 lottery. By the end, you'll understand how to efficiently model scenarios like selecting 6 unique pairs from a set of options or picking 6 numbers out of 49 for a lottery.

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Understanding product, combination, and sample

product: Generating All Possible Combinations

The product method in Ruby creates all possible pairings (or combinations) of elements from multiple arrays. This is particularly useful when combining two distinct sets of options, such as colors and icons.

For example, given an array of colors and an array of icons, product generates every possible color-icon pair:

colors = %w[Green Orange Red Purple Teal]
icons = %w[Crown Diamond Gift Thumb Ticket Trophy]

combinations = colors.product(icons)
puts combinations.inspect
#=> [["Green", "Crown"], ["Green", "Diamond"], ...]

This results in 30 unique color-icon pairs (5 × 6).

combination: Selecting Unique Groups

Once you've generated all possible pairs, combination(n) allows you to create unique groups of n items where the order doesn’t matter. This is perfect for simulating draws where only a subset of items is chosen.

draws = combinations.combination(6).to_a
puts "Total possible 6-draw combinations: #{draws.size}"
#=> Total possible 6-draw combinations: 593,775

sample: Simulating Random Draws

The sample method is useful for randomly selecting a single winning draw, simulating a real-world lottery or prize selection:

winning_draw = combinations.combination(6).to_a.sample
puts "Winning Draw: #{winning_draw.inspect}"
#=> [["Orange", "Gift"], ["Red", "Crown"], ...]

Now that we understand these methods, let’s apply them to simulate a GCash Lucky Load game.

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Simulating GCash's Lucky Load Game

Step 1: Define the Available Choices

We set up two arrays: one for colors and another for icons.

colors = %w[Green Orange Red Purple Teal]
icons = %w[Crown Diamond Gift Thumb Ticket Trophy]

Step 2: Generate All Possible Color-Icon Combinations

Using product, we generate every possible pairing:

all_pairs = colors.product(icons)
puts "Total unique color-icon pairs: #{all_pairs.size}"
#=> Total unique color-icon pairs: 30

Step 3: Simulate a 6-Pair Lucky Draw

To simulate a game round, we randomly select 6 unique pairs from the 30 available.

draws = all_pairs.combination(6).to_a
winning_draw = draws.sample
puts "Winning combination: #{winning_draw.inspect}"

Step 4: Display the Winning Draw in a Grid

For better visualization, we format the output:

col_width = 8
puts " " * col_width + colors.map { |c| c.center(col_width) }.join

icons.each do |icon|
  row = icon.ljust(col_width)
  colors.each do |color|
    mark = winning_draw.include?([color, icon]) ? 'x' : 'o'
    row += mark.center(col_width)
  end
  puts row
end

puts "\nWinning selection:"
winning_draw.each { |color, icon| puts "x #{color}-#{icon}" }

This outputs a clear representation of the winning draw.

         Green   Orange   Red    Purple   Teal  
Crown      o       o       o       o       o    
Diamond    o       x       o       o       x    
Gift       o       o       o       x       o    
Thumb      o       x       o       o       o    
Ticket     o       o       x       x       o    
Trophy     o       o       o       o       o    

Winning selection:
x Orange-Diamond
x Orange-Thumb
x Red-Ticket
x Purple-Gift
x Purple-Ticket
x Teal-Diamond

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Applying This to Other Games

These methods extend beyond just color-icon games. Here are some additional applications:

Lotto (Pick 6 out of 49 Numbers)

Ever wondered about your odds in a standard Super Lotto 6/49 game? With 13,983,816 possible combinations, here’s how to generate a winning draw:

numbers = (1..49).to_a
winning_draw = numbers.combination(6).to_a.sample
puts "Winning Lotto Draw: #{winning_draw.inspect}"

Fantasy Sports Drafts

Use combination to simulate drafting teams of players from a pool.

Card Games

Generate random hands by combining cards from a deck.

Prize Draws

Ensure fairness by randomly selecting winners from a list of participants.

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Why Use product, combination, and sample?

Ruby’s product, combination, and sample methods offer efficient ways to generate, analyze, and randomly select from large sets of possibilities. Whether you're designing a game, running a raffle, or calculating probabilities, these methods allow you to:

• Quickly calculate total possible outcomes.
• Simulate random draws or selections.
• Test different scenarios without manually listing all possibilities.

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Conclusion

Ruby’s product and combination methods are powerful tools for simulating real-world games and scenarios. By combining them with sample, you can efficiently generate all possible outcomes and calculate probabilities. Whether you're designing a lucky draw, organizing a raffle, or building a card game, these methods make the process straightforward and fun.

Try experimenting with different sets and numbers to see how the odds change—and let us know what creative applications you come up with!

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Final Notes:

• The example above uses a 6-pair draw, but you can adjust this based on your game’s rules.
• For larger datasets, consider using lazy evaluation (lazy) to optimize memory usage.

Happy coding!