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From: ofer on 15 Feb 2006 15:53
Hi, I got a file with many quotations by Larry Wall.
The file uses the fortune cookie format:

All language designers are arrogant. Goes with the territory... :-)
-- Larry Wall in <1991Jul13.010945.19157(a)netlabs.com
%
Although the Perl Slogan is There's More Than One Way to Do It, I
hesitate
to make 10 ways to do something. :-)
-- Larry Wall in <9695(a)jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%
And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and
space,
because that's exactly how much difference there is. :-)
-- Larry Wall in <10209(a)jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%
"And I don't like doing silly things (except on purpose)."
-- Larry Wall in <1992Jul3.191825.14435(a)netlabs.com>
%

Each time when a visitor comes visit me in my website, I want him to
view a quotation by Larry Wall, and I want it to be a random one.
I have an idea about how to do it, but I think it sucks:
1. Get this file to memory using slurp ( the file is 60kb )
2. count how many times we have "\n%\n" in the file
3. generate a random number that will fit the results from ( 2 )
4. count "\n%\n" until we get to the random number
5. take the quote from there

It looks pretty bad, I know.
Got any other idea for me how to do it?

From: it_says_BALLS_on_your forehead on 15 Feb 2006 16:04

ofer(a)ilunix.org wrote:
> Hi, I got a file with many quotations by Larry Wall.
> The file uses the fortune cookie format:
>
> All language designers are arrogant. Goes with the territory... :-)
> -- Larry Wall in <1991Jul13.010945.19157(a)netlabs.com
> %
> Although the Perl Slogan is There's More Than One Way to Do It, I
> hesitate
> to make 10 ways to do something. :-)
> -- Larry Wall in <9695(a)jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
> %
> And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and
> space,
> because that's exactly how much difference there is. :-)
> -- Larry Wall in <10209(a)jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
> %
> "And I don't like doing silly things (except on purpose)."
> -- Larry Wall in <1992Jul3.191825.14435(a)netlabs.com>
> %
>
> Each time when a visitor comes visit me in my website, I want him to
> view a quotation by Larry Wall, and I want it to be a random one.
> I have an idea about how to do it, but I think it sucks:
> 1. Get this file to memory using slurp ( the file is 60kb )
> 2. count how many times we have "\n%\n" in the file
> 3. generate a random number that will fit the results from ( 2 )
> 4. count "\n%\n" until we get to the random number
> 5. take the quote from there
>
> It looks pretty bad, I know.
> Got any other idea for me how to do it?

read each line into a hash with the line number as the key, and the
quote as the value. get a random number, mod it by keys %hash (in
scalar context). print $hash{$number}.

From: J. Gleixner on 15 Feb 2006 16:37
ofer(a)ilunix.org wrote:
> Hi, I got a file with many quotations by Larry Wall.

> Each time when a visitor comes visit me in my website, I want him to
> view a quotation by Larry Wall, and I want it to be a random one.

> Got any other idea for me how to do it?

Maybe it's already an FAQ?

perldoc -q "How do I select a random line from a file"

Also look at $/ and perldoc -f chomp.

Post your code, if you have questions.

From: A. Sinan Unur on 15 Feb 2006 16:45
ofer(a)ilunix.org wrote in news:1140036798.158996.97960
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

> Hi, I got a file with many quotations by Larry Wall.
> The file uses the fortune cookie format:

....

> Each time when a visitor comes visit me in my website, I want him to
> view a quotation by Larry Wall, and I want it to be a random one.

....

> Got any other idea for me how to do it?

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

my @quotes;
{
local $/ = "%\n";
chomp(@quotes = <DATA>);
}

print $quotes[int(rand @quotes)], "\n";

__DATA__
All language designers are arrogant. Goes with the territory... :-)
-- Larry Wall in <1991Jul13.010945.19157(a)netlabs.com
%
Although the Perl Slogan is There's More Than One Way to Do It, I
hesitate to make 10 ways to do something. :-)
-- Larry Wall in <9695(a)jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%
And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and
space, because that's exactly how much difference there is. :-)
-- Larry Wall in <10209(a)jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>
%
"And I don't like doing silly things (except on purpose)."
-- Larry Wall in <1992Jul3.191825.14435(a)netlabs.com>
%

D:\Home\asu1\UseNet\clpmisc> fortune.pl
And don't tell me there isn't one bit of difference between null and
space, because that's exactly how much difference there is. :-)
-- Larry Wall in <10209(a)jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV>

Sinan
--
A. Sinan Unur <1usa(a)llenroc.ude.invalid>
(reverse each component and remove .invalid for email address)

comp.lang.perl.misc guidelines on the WWW:
http://mail.augustmail.com/~tadmc/clpmisc/clpmisc_guidelines.html

From: Rick Scott on 15 Feb 2006 18:16
(ofer(a)ilunix.org uttered:)
> Hi, I got a file with many quotations by Larry Wall.
> The file uses the fortune cookie format:
> ...

> Each time when a visitor comes visit me in my website, I want him to
> view a quotation by Larry Wall, and I want it to be a random one.
> I have an idea about how to do it, but I think it sucks:
> 1. Get this file to memory using slurp ( the file is 60kb )
> 2. count how many times we have "\n%\n" in the file
> 3. generate a random number that will fit the results from ( 2 )
> 4. count "\n%\n" until we get to the random number
> 5. take the quote from there
>
> It looks pretty bad, I know.
> Got any other idea for me how to do it?

my $fortune = `/usr/games/fortune larry_wall_quotes.txt`;




Rick
--
key CF8F8A75 / print C5C1 F87D 5056 D2C0 D5CE D58F 970F 04D1 CF8F 8A75
To thine own self be true,
then to no man can you be false.
:William Shakespeare
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