random picking

Hi all,
Can anyone please help with a solution to this?

I dont want to pick the same mesh twice or three times from the character array during the loop...

This is very basically what I'm doing...

Bob = loadmesh("bob.b3d") ;character 1
Fred = loadmesh("Fred.b3d");character 2 and so on up to 16

Jill = loadmesh("Jill.b3d");character 16


Dim characterarray$(16)
characterarray(0) = Bob
characterarray(1) = Fred ;...and so on up to 16
characterarray(16) = Jill

Then I set up a loop to do this...

For spawn = 0 To 2
r.character = New character
randcharacter = Rand(0,16)
mesh = characterarray$(randcharacter)
r\mesh = CopyEntity(mesh)


Next

So what I'm doing is generating 3 random characters from an array of 16. What Im trying to achieve is how to NOT pick the same character twice or three times during the loop.
Any help on how to do this would be appreciated. Thanks.

The following little program generates 3 random numbers in the range of 0 to 16 (as you need) and stores them in an array. The purpose of the array is to enable a check to be made on subsequent random number generations to ensure that the random number hasn't already been chosen. Should be easy enough to convert for your program.

SeedRnd MilliSecs()

Dim gen(2)
char=-1

For spawn=0 To 2
	While char<0
		char=Rand(0,16)
		If spawn>0 Then
			For i=0 To spawn-1
				If gen(i)=char Then char=-1
			Next
		EndIf
	Wend
	gen(spawn)=char
	char=-1
Next

For i=0 To 2
	Print "Character "+(i+1)+" is "+gen(i)
Next

WaitKey:End

Ah thank you JazzieB, I'll give it a go.