To emphasis how bad that sort-based "shuffle" is, consider that over a million shuffles of four values, 1/3rd of the possibilities are never chosen. And the rest are chosen so disproportionately that 'fairness' doesn't enter the equation: 

++$h{ join'',sort{ rand() < rand() } 'a'..'d' } for 1 .. 1e6;;

 printf "$_ : %.2f%%\n", $h{$_} / 1e4 for sort keys %h;;
abcd : 12.48%
abdc : 12.47%
bacd : 12.48%
badc : 12.49%
cabd : 3.15%
cadb : 3.12%
cbad : 3.14%
cbda : 3.13%
cdab : 6.26%
cdba : 6.26%
dabc : 3.13%
dacb : 3.15%
dbac : 3.13%
dbca : 3.11%
dcab : 6.26%
dcba : 6.25%

[download]

Contrast that with 

use List::Util qw[ shuffle ];;
++$q{ join'',shuffle 'a'..'d' } for 1 .. 1e6;;

printf "$_ : %.2f%%\n", $q{$_} / 1e4 for sort keys %q;;
abcd : 4.18%
abdc : 4.12%
acbd : 4.14%
acdb : 4.20%
adbc : 4.17%
adcb : 4.18%
bacd : 4.15%
badc : 4.19%
bcad : 4.17%
bcda : 4.16%
bdac : 4.17%
bdca : 4.15%
cabd : 4.14%
cadb : 4.17%
cbad : 4.19%
cbda : 4.18%
cdab : 4.19%
cdba : 4.20%
dabc : 4.17%
dacb : 4.15%
dbac : 4.16%
dbca : 4.22%
dcab : 4.14%
dcba : 4.13%

[download]

And the latter is more efficient to boot.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.
RIP an inspiration; A true Folk's Guy

In reply to Re^2: Randomly select values from array by BrowserUk
in thread Randomly select values from array by Anonymous Monk

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