$ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my %bag = ( A => 4, B => 2, C => 3, D => 1 ); my @distribution; for my $key (sort { $bag{$b} <=> $bag{$a} } keys %bag) { my $base_offset = int(@distribution / ($bag{$key} + 1)); my $offset = $base_offset; for (1 .. $bag{$key}) { next unless $_ % 2; splice @distribution, $offset, 0, $key; if ($_ < $bag{$key}) { splice @distribution, -$offset, 0, $key; } $offset += $base_offset + 1; } } say "@distribution"; ' A C B A D C A B C A #### $ perl -Mstrict -Mwarnings -E ' my %bag = ( A => 4, B => 2, C => 3, D => 1 ); my @distribution; for my $key (sort { $bag{$b} <=> $bag{$a} } keys %bag) { my $base_offset = int(@distribution / ($bag{$key} + 1) + 0.5); my $offset = $base_offset; for (1 .. $bag{$key}) { next unless $_ % 2; splice @distribution, $offset, 0, $key; if ($_ < $bag{$key}) { splice @distribution, -$offset, 0, $key; } $offset += $base_offset + 1; } } say "@distribution"; ' A C B A C D A B C A #### my %bag = ( A => 4, B => 2, C => 3, D => 1, Z => 1 ); #### my %bag = ( A => 4, B => 2, C => 3, D => 1, Y => 5, Z => 1 ); #### my %bag = ( A => 4, B => 2, C => 3, D => 1, X => 6, Y => 5, Z => 1 ); #### my %bag = ( A => 4, B => 2, C => 3, D => 1, W => 4, X => 6, Y => 5, Z => 1 ); #### A C B A Z D C A B C A Y A C Y B A C D Z Y A B Y C A Y X Y A C X Y B A C X D Z Y X A B Y X C A Y X X Y A W C X Y B A W C X D Z Y X W A B Y X C W A Y X