NAME Array::Pick::Scan - Pick random items from an array (or iterator), without duplicates VERSION This document describes version 0.005 of Array::Pick::Scan (from Perl distribution Array-Pick-Scan), released on 2022-05-21. SYNOPSIS use Array::Pick::Scan qw(pick); my $item = pick(\@ary); my @items = pick(\@ary, 3); or: my $item = pick(\&iterator); my @items = pick(\&iterator, 3); To return array indexes instead of the items: my @item = pick($source, $n, {pos=>1}); DESCRIPTION This module can return random items from an array (or iterator), without duplicate elements (i.e. random sampling without replacement). It uses the same algorithm as File::Random::Pick, which in turn uses a slightly modified version of algorithm described in perlfaq ("perldoc -q "random line"")), but uses items from an array/iterator instead of lines from a file(handle). Performance-wise, this module is inferior to List::Util's "shuffle" or List::MoreUtils's "samples", but can be useful in cases where you have an iterator and do not want to put all the iterator's items into memory first. FUNCTIONS pick Usage: my @items = pick(\@ary [ , $num_samples [ , \%opts ] ]); my @items = pick(\&iterator [ , $num_samples [ , \%opts ] ]); Number of samples defaults to 1. Options: * pos Bool. If set to true, will return array indexes instead of the items. random_item Older name for "pick", deprecated and will be removed in future releases. HOMEPAGE Please visit the project's homepage at . SOURCE Source repository is at . SEE ALSO File::Random::Pick uses a similar algorithm. List::Util's "shuffle", List::MoreUtils's "samples", List::AllUtils's "sample". Array::Sample::SimpleRandom provides random sampling without replacement (same as picking in this module) as well as with replacement (creating possible duplicate items). Array::Sample::WeightedRandom lets you add weighting to each item. AUTHOR perlancar CONTRIBUTING To contribute, you can send patches by email/via RT, or send pull requests on GitHub. Most of the time, you don't need to build the distribution yourself. You can simply modify the code, then test via: % prove -l If you want to build the distribution (e.g. to try to install it locally on your system), you can install Dist::Zilla, Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, and sometimes one or two other Dist::Zilla plugin and/or Pod::Weaver::Plugin. Any additional steps required beyond that are considered a bug and can be reported to me. COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE This software is copyright (c) 2022, 2020 by perlancar . This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself. BUGS Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.