On Thu, 29 Nov 2001, Philip Newton wrote:
> > while ( @arr ) {
> > $pos = rand($#arr);
> > $val = splice @arr, $pos, 1;
> > print "is: $val\n";
> > }
>
> Obi-Wan error in there? I think you need rand(@arr), or you're never
> going to get the last element (since rand($#arr) always is < $#arr).
Ooops. Dang. I did that because the first box I tried that on is locked
w/ an old perl and I wasn't sure it'd use the context correctly (didn't
that change in the middle 5s somewhere?) ... wait a sec, it works:
srand;
@arr = (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7);
while ( @arr ) {
$pos = rand($#arr);
$val = splice @arr, $pos, 1;
print "is: $val\n";
}
gives:
is: 2
is: 1
is: 6
is: 3
is: 5
is: 4
is: 7
However, my concerns were groundless, 5.000 handles:
$pos = rand(@arr);
properly.
a
Andy Bach, Sys. Mangler
Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED] VOICE: (608) 264-5178 ex 5738, FAX 264-510
"Murphy's Law, that brash proletarian restatement of Godel's Theorem ..."
-- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
