my @weighteddiv = (('1234') x 7, ('9876') x 42, ('1123') x 13); my @selected; my $maxclients = 2; my %occurrence; foreach (@weighteddiv) { $occurrence{$_}++; } my $total = @weighteddiv; until (@selected == $maxclients or keys %occurrence == 0) { my $i = rand($total); keys %occurrence; # reset hash iterator while (my ($value, $count) = each %occurrence) { if ($i < $count) { push @selected, $value; delete $occurrence{$value}; $total -= $count; last; } $i -= $count; } } print "Selected: @selected\n";