http://www.perlmonks.org?node_id=1044804

perlnoobster has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Hi monks, I have a file called output.txt it contains thousands of rows of text separated by columns, all i need is for the output to be randomized, is this possible? (without installing a module) Thank you

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Re: randomize a text file
by toolic (Bishop) on Jul 17, 2013 at 13:28 UTC
[reply]
Re: randomize a text file
by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jul 17, 2013 at 13:46 UTC

    How do you want it randomised?

    Given:

    a b c d e
f g h i j
k l m n o
p q r s t
u v w x y

    [download]

    Do you want (randomise rows; columns stay the same):

    k l m n o
u v w x y
f g h i j
p q r s t
a b c d e

    [download]

    Or (randomise the columns; rosw stay the same):

    c b d e a 
h g i j f 
m l n o k 
r q s t p 
w v x y u

    [download]

    Or (randomise both):

    h g i j f 
w v x y u 
c b d e a 
r q s t p 
m l n o k

    [download]
    With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
    Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
    "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
    In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
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      Hi BrowserUk, I want to randomize the rows, i.e. the columns stay the same, can you help me? thank you
[reply]
        , can you help me?

        Depends. Post code that reads the file into an array, then maybe.

        With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
        Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
        "Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
        In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
[reply]

        If you want to randomize rows only, read your file into an array of rows, apply shuffle from List::Util and print shuffled array into new file. That's all, probably just a one-liner, don't even need to chomp.

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