You don't mention the size of your files. If not overwhelming, consider creating a hash of hashes (HoH) from each file's contents. When you've used one of the Makes (for example), remove it by deleting it from the hash. For example:

use strict;
use warnings;

my %hash;

while (<DATA>) {
    chomp;
    $hash{Makes}{$_} = undef;
}

print 'Before:', "\n";
print "$_\n" for keys %{ $hash{Makes} };

my $item = getCategoryItem( 'Makes', \%hash );
print "\n", 'Selected:', "\n", $item, "\n\n";

print 'After:', "\n";
print "$_\n" for keys %{ $hash{Makes} };

sub getCategoryItem {
    my ( $category, $hashRef ) = @_;
    my @items = keys %{ $hashRef->{$category} } or return undef;
    # undef is returned if no items

    my $item = $items[ rand $#items + 1 ];
    delete $hashRef->{$category}{$item};
    return $item;
}

__DATA__
Ford
Chevrolet
KIA

[download]

Sample output:

Before:
KIA
Chevrolet
Ford

Selected:
KIA

After:
Chevrolet
Ford

[download]

Hope this helps!

In reply to Re: Flat File Comment by Kenosis
in thread Flat File Comment by PilotinControl

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