Sorting an array to avoid neighboring items having duplicate attributes

I have an array of objects. Each object has a color attribute which could be "red", "blue", "yellow", "green", "orange" or "purple". There are 20-30 objects in the array so colors repeat. My goal is to sort the array so that no colors are next to each other. 开发者_如何学编程Distribution of colors is not exactly even but close.

This is what I have so far. It checks the next and previous object for a color match and if it finds a match it moves it to the end of the array.

private function sortColors():void
{
    var getNext:uint;
    var getPrev:uint;
    var maxCount:uint = colorArray.length;
    for (var i:uint = 0; i < maxCount; i++) {
        var cur:ValueObject = colorArray[i];
        (i == maxCount-1) ? getNext = 0 : getNext = i+1;
        (i == 0) ? getPrev = maxCount-1 : getPrev = i-1;
        var next:ValueObject = colorArray[getNext];
        var prev:ValueObject = colorArray[getPrev];
        if (cur.color == next.color) {
            var move:ValueObject = colorArray[getNext];
            colorArray.splice(getNext, 1);
            colorArray.push(move);
        }
        if (cur.color == prev.color) {
            var move:ValueObject = colorArray[getPrev];
            colorArray.splice(getPrev, 1);
            colorArray.push(move);
        }
    }
}

This works OK but if there is more of a certain color they end up repeating at the end. I could add something to the end to throw those back into the mix but I feel like there must be a better way. Someone enlighten me.

Try:

var colorObjects:Array = [/* list of objects with colors - populated below*/];
var jumbled:Array = [];

var lastColor:String = "";
function getDifferentTile():void
{
    if(lastColor.length == 0)
    {
        jumbled.push(colorObjects.pop());
        lastColor = jumbled[0].mycolor;
    }
    else
    {
        var i:Object;
        for each(i in colorObjects)
        {
            var repeat:uint = 0;
            if(i.mycolor != lastColor)
            {
                jumbled.push(i);
                lastColor = i.mycolor;

                colorObjects.splice(colorObjects.indexOf(i), 1);

                return;
            } else {
               repeat++;
            }
            if (repeat > 0 && repeat == colorObjects.length) {
               jumbled.push(i);
               colorObjects.splice(colorObjects.indexOf(i), 1);
               return;
            }
        }
    }
}

// list of random colors
var colors:Array = ["0x000000","0x444444","0xFFFFFF","0xFF00FF"];

// prepare random array for test
var i:uint = 0;
for(i; i<100; i++)
{
    var obj:Object =
    {
        mycolor: colors[uint(Math.random()*colors.length)]
    };

    colorObjects.push(obj);
}


// fill the jumble array until the original listing is empty
while(colorObjects.length > 0)
{
    getDifferentTile();
}


// output jumbled
var j:Object;
for each(j in jumbled)
{
    trace(j.mycolor);
}