sub randomarray { my ($columns,$count)= @_; my @all; push @all, $_ foreach (0..($columns-1)); my @randarray; while ($count-- >0) { push @randarray, splice(@all, int(rand(@all)),1); } return @randarray; } print join ' ',randomarray( scalar @{$data[0]} , 2 ),"\n"; print join ' ',randomarray( scalar @{$data[0]} , 3 ),"\n"; print join ' ',randomarray( scalar @{$data[0]} , 4 ),"\n"; # might print 3 4 3 0 1 0 1 4 2