#!/usr/bin/env perl use 5.010; use warnings; use strict; my $DNA = "AACCGTTAATGGGCATCGATGCTATGCGAGCT"; sub make_rand_getter { my $s = shift; my $sl = length $s; return sub { return substr $s, int rand($sl - $_[0]), $_[0]; } } my $rstring = make_rand_getter($DNA); say "3-letter string: " . $rstring ->(3); say "7-letter string: " . $rstring ->(7);