in reply to Idiom to return 0 or random number of array elements

I can then extend that to return a random number of elements: @array[0 .. int rand @array];. But I need to also sometimes get 0 elements.

That will return 0 elements approx. 10% of the time:

@array = 0 .. 9;;

sub x{ return @array[ 0 .. int( rand @array ) ]; };;

$stats{ scalar( x() ) }++ for  1 .. 1000;;

pp \%stats;;
{ "0" => 90, 1 => 103, 2 => 126, 3 => 99, 4 => 101, 5 => 101, 6 => 88,
+ 7 => 97, 8 => 105, 9 => 90 }

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Re^2: Idiom to return 0 or random number of array elements
by LanX (Saint) on Dec 07, 2012 at 05:46 UTC
    @array[0 ..0] is one and not zero elements!

      DB<103> @array=a..f
 => ("a", "b", "c", "d", "e", "f")
 
  DB<104> @array[0..0]
 => "a"

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    UPDATE:

    your statistical proof falls into the trap

    scalar @array != scalar (LIST)

    if your function() returns a one element list (0), then scalar function() will be 0, since 0 is the last element of the list.

    (more detailed in Re^2: Idiom to return 0 or random number of array elements by eyepopslikeamosquito )

    initializing @array = 1..10 makes it more obvious, b/c the last element of a sublist is now identical to the length! 

      DB<106> @array = 1 .. 10;
 => (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
 
  DB<107> sub x{ return @array[ 0 .. int( rand @array ) ]; };
 => 0
 
  DB<108> $stats{ scalar( x() ) }++ for  1 .. 1000;
 => ""
 
  DB<109> \%stats;
 => { 1 => 100, 2 => 101, 3 => 108, 4 => 108, 5 => 101, 6 => 103, 7 =>
+ 79, 8 => 98, 9 => 100, 10 => 102 }

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    Cheers Rolf

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Re^2: Idiom to return 0 or random number of array elements
by eyepopslikeamosquito (Archbishop) on Dec 07, 2012 at 10:31 UTC

    Just to clarify what is going on, notice that the scalar is not required in: 

    $stats{ scalar( x() ) }++

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    That is, this: 
    $stats{ x() }++

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    produces numbers in the 0..9 range, as BrowserUk's original did, while this: 
    $stats{ scalar( my @r = x() ) }++

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    produces numbers in the range 1..10 because this time the scalar context is getting the number of items in the array, in contrast to the earlier scalar context which was getting the value of the last element in the list.

    For example, a run of this program: 

    use strict;
use warnings;
use Data::Dumper;
my @array = 0 .. 9;
sub x { return @array[ 0 .. int(rand @array) ] }
my %stats;
$stats{ scalar( my @r = x() ) }++ for  1 .. 1000;
print Dumper( \%stats );

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    produced: 
    $VAR1 = {
          '6' => 81,
          '3' => 110,
          '7' => 84,
          '9' => 94,
          '2' => 96,
          '8' => 98,
          '4' => 89,
          '1' => 123,
          '10' => 117,
          '5' => 108

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    Update: For more detail on array vs list context see:

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      With $hash{...} a scalar context is imposed on the key. With a slice like @hash{...} list context is imposed on the key.

      use 5.010;
use strict;

sub WA { return wantarray }

my %hash = ('' => 'Hello ', '1' => 'World');

say $hash{ WA() }, @hash{ WA() };

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      perl -E'sub Monkey::do{say$_,for@_,do{($monkey=[caller(0)]->[3])=~s{::}{ }and$monkey}}"Monkey say"->Monkey::do'
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Re^2: Idiom to return 0 or random number of array elements
by Anonymous Monk on Dec 07, 2012 at 05:47 UTC
    Are you confusing the element at index 0 with 0 elements- e.g. the empty list? I want to the empty list with equal probability, and my solution does that. I'm just looking for a more succinct way to express it.
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Re^2: Idiom to return 0 or random number of array elements
by Anonymous Monk on Dec 07, 2012 at 15:36 UTC

    Can someone explain why this code produces key values in %stats hash that range "0" to "9"?

    The key values, representing the number of elements in the random-length generated arrays should range from "1" to "10", since all generated arrays contain at least one element.

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