Re: How do I select a random key from a hash?

What's wrong with this ?:

$lh=scalar keys %h;
print ((keys %h)[int rand($lh)]);
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[Q&A Editor- Changed '(split "/",scalar %h)[0]' to "scalar keys %h" as noted by chipmunk.]

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Re: Answer: How do I select a random key from a hash? by chipmunk (Parson) on Feb 05, 2001 at 22:01 UTC
In a scalar context, %h returns a string consisting of the number of buckets used, a slash, and the number of buckets allocated. You could have a hash with 1000 keys and only 16 buckets. Thus, your "random key" is limited to one of the first few keys in the hash. Try `$lh = scalar keys %h;` instead.	[reply] [d/l]