I am trying to create a perl script, that reads a list of names from a text file, and randomly couples them. So, it must be random, and after a name is used once, it cannot be used again. Here is the code I have written: File: random-couples.pl

#!/usr/bin/perl

srand();    # initiate random generator for rand() command
$totalline = 0;    # var for hold total number of lines (names); start
+s it at 0

if (!$ARGV[0] || !$ARGV[1]) {
    &usage;
} else {
    &openread;
    &compile_list;
    &makegroups;
}

# Usage Subroutine.  Displayed if program not used properly
sub usage {
    print "Random Couple Generator\n";
    print "\n Usage \n";
    print "./random-couples.pl name-file target-file\n";
    print "Example:  ./random-couples friends couples\n";
    print "\t Where friends is your list of friends, 
        and couples is the new list of couples\n\n";
}

# opens specifed read file, and processes it to be parsed
sub openread {
    open (READ, "< $ARGV[0]") or die "Cant open $ARGV[0] : $!";
    while(<READ>) {
        s/#.*//;        # ignore comments (remove them)
        next if /^(\s)*$/;    # skip blank lines
        s/\d//g;        # remove any numbers in the text file
        s/\.//g;        # remove periods
        chomp;            # remove newline (\n)
        push @file_contents, $_;# push line into array
    }
}

# calculates how many lines are in the file
sub randomize {
    while (@file_contents) {
        $totalline++;        # find total number of names
    }
}

# create array with random names
sub compile_list {
    foreach $names (@file_contents) {
        &randomize;                    # find total number of names
        $ng = int(rand($totalline));            # random number from 0
+ to $totalline, made into an integer for array
        $finalizedlist[$tmp] = $file_contents[$ng];    # set finalized
+list element $tmp to random number
        splice(@file_contents, $ng, $ng);        # take person out
        $tmp++                        # goto next value of finalizedli
+st array
    }
}

# open write file, write two random people, close write file
sub makegroups {
    $fark = 0;
    $fark2 = $fark + 1;
    while ($fark2 != $totalline) {
        open (WRITE, ">> $ARGV[1]") or die "Can\'t open $ARGV[1] : $!"
+;
        print WRITE "Group $fark: ".$finalizedlist[$fark]." and ".$fin
+alizedlist[$fark2]." are partners\n";
        close WRITE;
        $fark++;
        $fark2 = $fark + 1;
    }
}
[download]

When I execute the code on a text file containing: File: names

1.bobby
2.jane
3.charleen
4.markus
5.gabriel
6.Alex
[download]

with the command perl random-couples.pl names results then the results file is filled with crap: File: Results

Group 0: Alex and  are partners
Group 1:  and  are partners
Group 2:  and  are partners
Group 3:  and bobby are partners
Group 4: bobby and  are partners
Group 5:  and  are partners
and then it goes like Group 5, until it reaches 24.
[download]

any help or suggestions are much appreciated

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