#!perl -slw use strict; use List::Util qw/ shuffle /; sub x { my( $N, @M ) = @_; my ($minus_1, $minus_2, $str) = (('') x 3); $minus_1 = $M[rand @M]; $minus_2 = $M[rand @M]; $str = $minus_1 . $minus_2; for (1 .. $N - 2) { my $next_char; my $idx = int(rand @M); if ($minus_1 eq $minus_2) { $idx = ($idx + int(rand @M) + 1) % @M; } $str .= $next_char = $M[$idx]; ($minus_1, $minus_2) = ($minus_2, $next_char); } return $str; } for( 1 .. 10 ) { my $x = x( 12, qw[ A B C D E F ] ); print $x, $x =~ m[(.)\1\1] ? ' Fail' : ' Ok'; } __END__ [17:39:11.61] c:\test>junk3 BAADDBBCADEF Ok ADAEFADBCEEA Ok CECBAABFCEFE Ok CDDCFDAABEBF Ok ADFBFCEADFFF Fail DAABAAFDCCCE Fail ABAADCBDFBBB Fail FDDDBEEADBCC Fail CEDCDDFCEEFA Ok FCBECCCEAFEB Fail