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Trying to randomize

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techer

techer

MIS
Dec 2, 2002
35
AU
Hi, there.

I'm a teacher from NY City. I have learned a very little bit of Perl. The teachers in my school love to play vocabulary BINGO with students. I'm trying to make our jobs easier by writing a simple script, but it's not so simple. I working on my knowledge of Perl, but I have hit a total roadblock.

I have written a small script that takes data (25 words) input by users from a form and then it spits out the words in the form of a table with borders to produce a bingo card. That part works fine.

Here's my dilemma, I then want a button to appear at the bottom that says something like, “Shuffle Words”. Then when the user clicks it, the script would create the same card with the words in a different order (random) within that table. Sounds simple, but I'm lost.

I'm on my fifth book that tells me anyone can write Perl, yet I still have no clue what to do. Could you please help?

A 1000 thanks!

Bob

Here is the code to the script, so far:

=====================================================================
#!/usr/bin/perl

# Decode incoming form data from browser
&parseForm;

# Print the page
&printPage;


## Begin sub routines #

# Decode and prepare form data
sub parseForm {

if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "POST") {
read(STDIN,$buffer,$ENV{CONTENT_LENGTH});
@pairs = split(/&/, $buffer);
} else {
@pairs = split(/&/,$ENV{'QUERY_STRING'});
}

foreach $pair (@pairs) {
($name, $value) = split(/=/, $pair, 2);
$value =~ tr/+/ /;
$value =~ s/%([a-fA-F0-9][a-fA-F0-9])/pack("C", hex($1))/eg;
$in{$name} = $value;
}

$field1=$in{'word'};
$field2=$in{'word2'};
$field3=$in{'word3'};
$field4=$in{'word4'};
$field5=$in{'word5'};
$field6=$in{'word6'};
$field7=$in{'word7'};
$field8=$in{'word8'};
$field9=$in{'word9'};
$field10=$in{'word10'};
$field11=$in{'word11'};
$field12=$in{'word12'};
$field13=$in{'word13'};
$field14=$in{'word14'};
$field15=$in{'word15'};
$field16=$in{'word16'};
$field17=$in{'word17'};
$field18=$in{'word18'};
$field19=$in{'word19'};
$field20=$in{'word20'};
$field21=$in{'word21'};
$field22=$in{'word22'};
$field23=$in{'word23'};
$field24=$in{'word24'};
$field25=$in{'word25'};
}


# Print the page
sub printPage {
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

print<<&quot;HTML&quot;;
<html>
<head>
<title>Your Bingo Card Is Ready!</title>
</head>

<body bgcolor=&quot;#FFFFFF&quot;>
<table width=&quot;620&quot; border=&quot;5&quot; cellspacing=&quot;0&quot; cellpadding=&quot;0&quot; align=&quot;center&quot;>
<tr>
<td width=&quot;118&quot;>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field1</font></b></font></p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
</td>
<td width=&quot;122&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field6</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;127&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field11</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;120&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field16</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;113&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field21</font></b></font></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=&quot;118&quot;>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field2</font></b></font></p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
</td>
<td width=&quot;122&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field7</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;127&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field12</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;120&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field17</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;113&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field22</font></b></font></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=&quot;118&quot; height=&quot;24&quot;>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field3</font></b></font></p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
</td>
<td width=&quot;122&quot; height=&quot;24&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field8</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;127&quot; height=&quot;24&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field13</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;120&quot; height=&quot;24&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field18</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;113&quot; height=&quot;24&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field23</font></b></font></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=&quot;118&quot;>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field4</font></b></font></p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
</td>
<td width=&quot;122&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field9</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;127&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field14</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;120&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field19</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;113&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field24</font></b></font></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width=&quot;118&quot;>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field5</font></b></font></p>
<p align=&quot;center&quot;> </p>
</td>
<td width=&quot;122&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field10</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;127&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field15</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;120&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field20</font></b></font></div>
</td>
<td width=&quot;113&quot;>
<div align=&quot;center&quot;><font size=&quot;4&quot;><b><font size=&quot;3&quot;>$field25</font></b></font></div>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
HTML

}

exit;
#END OF SCRIPT
 
here's some code to shuffle a hash.
The results of the code are the value fields of a hash stored in the odd indexes of the array.

assigning a hash to an array results in
all the keys being stored in even indexes and all
the values stored in odd index's
ex: hash{'key'}='value';
@array = %hash;
#$array[0]='key'
#$array[1]='value'


Hope this helps,

Janie


#!/usr/bin/perl
###########BEGIN PERL CODE##############
$in{'one'}=&quot;one number&quot;;
$in{'two'}=&quot;two number&quot;;
$in{'three'}=&quot;three number&quot;;
$in{'four'}=&quot;four number&quot;;
$in{'five'}=&quot;five number&quot;;
$in{'six'}=&quot;six number&quot;;
$in{'seven'}=&quot;seven number&quot;;
$in{'eight'}=&quot;eight number&quot;;
$in{'nine'}=&quot;nine number&quot;;
$in{'ten'}=&quot;ten number&quot;;
$in{'eleven'}=&quot;eleven number&quot;;
$in{'twelve'}=&quot;twelve number&quot;;
$in{'thirteen'}=&quot;thrirteen number&quot;;
$in{'fourteen'}=&quot;fourteen number&quot;;
$in{'fifteen'}=&quot;fiteen number&quot;;

#if you don't have access to command line perl interprter
#uncomment the line below to view results from your browser
#print &quot;Content-type: text/html\n\n&quot;;

@array=&shuffle;
$i=1;
while ($i<$#array){
print &quot;array index $i = $array[$i]\n&quot;;
$i=$i+2;
}
print &quot;\n new shuffling\n&quot;;
@array=&shuffle;
$i=1;
while ($i<$#array){
print &quot;array index $i = $array[$i]\n&quot;;
$i=$i+2;
}


sub shuffle{
#takes the hash and creates a new shuffled array
#uses %in as a global variable
my %hash=%in;

#assign the hash to an array
#all the keys of a hash are stored in even indexes
#all the values of a hash are stored in odd indexes
#ex: $hash{&quot;key&quot;}=&quot;value&quot; ==> @array=%hash ==> array[0]=&quot;key&quot; array[1]=&quot;value&quot;
my @unshuffledarray=%hash;
my $hashlength=$#unshuffledarray/2;
my $arraylength = $#unshuffledarray;

$i=1;
while ($i<=$arraylength){
$shuffleindex= int rand($hashlength);
$temp=$unshuffledarray[$i];
if ( $shuffleindex % 2 ==0){
#ensure that we are shuffling only the
#values and not the keys of the hash
$shuffleindex++;
}
#make the switch of the two values
$unshuffledarray[$i]=$unshuffledarray[$shuffleindex];
$unshuffledarray[$shuffleindex]=$temp;
$i=$i+2;
}

$i=1;

#now we have a shuffled array that can be printed out
return @unshuffledarray;
}




###############END OF CODE################
 
Thanks
 
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