Hmmm... what you could do is open each file and push (line by line) it in a single array.

open(FH,"$file1") or die " Could not open $file1!!! Here's why: $!";
push @array, <FH>;
close FH or die "Could not close $file1. Here's why: $!";

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Etc, etc. Then once you have all the files in a you can use a simple line to select a random phrase.

print $array[rand(@array)]; # just for you, meowchow :)

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note: This could drain some memory so be careful. Also, it would probably be much more efficient if you made a subroutine to open the files and return the data to you. That way you won't have so many open calls all the time. I will post an example in a bit.

UPDATE:Got the sub.
sub openf{
    my $file = shift;
    open(FH,$file) ||die"There's a problem! Here's what's up: $!";
    my @array = <FH>;
    close FH ||die"There's a problem! Here's what's up: $!";
    @array=grep{$_ ne ""} @array;
    return @array;
}

push @array,openf("test2.txt"),openf("test.txt");
print $array[4];

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UPDATE2: Use wog's advice, as his does not drain memory and has the same functionality as mine...but shorter.

UPDATE3: I don't know why but I felt that push @bla,$_ while <FH>; was the best solution...man I am stoopid tonight... thanks dvergin. 

$_.=($=+(6<<1));print(chr(my$a=$_));$^H=$_+$_;$_=$^H;
print chr($_-39); # Easy but its ok.

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In reply to Re: Random entry from combined data set by damian1301
in thread Random entry from combined data set by Anonymous Monk

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