Re: Random data generation.

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#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;

my @set = ('A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F');
my $length = 12;

my $result;

my $last_char;
while(length($result) < $length) {
     my $char = $set[int(rand()*(scalar(@set)-1))];
     next if ( $last_char eq $char);
     $result .= $char;
     $last_char = $char;
}

print $result;
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Comment on Re: Random data generation. Download Code

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Re^2: Random data generation. by almut (Canon) on Jun 26, 2010 at 07:10 UTC
Your approach could be made to work by simply checking the last two characters: `my @set = qw( A B C D E F ); my $len = 12; my $result = ''; while (length($result) < $len) { my $char = $set[ rand @set ]; next if substr($result, -2) eq $char x 2; $result .= $char; } print $result;` [download] Also, there's no need to use an extra variable (like `$last_char`), as `$result` already stores all the previous characters.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Random data generation. by bluescreen (Friar) on Jun 26, 2010 at 18:07 UTC
Absolutely it was a quick-&-dirty script, probably to much :D, I knew that instead of $last_char I could have used substr(), but premature optimization made me do that. Anyway this sort of social coding brought an interesting result	[reply]
Re^2: Random data generation. by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 26, 2010 at 03:35 UTC
You made the same error I did originally, you attempted to solve "no repeating characters" rather than "no more than two repeating characters". Furthermore, your code never uses the last character of the set.	[reply]
Re^2: Random data generation. by BrowserUk (Patriarch) on Jun 26, 2010 at 03:29 UTC
Not quite. I have to allow two consecutive chars, but not tripled or more...	[reply]