sample

Pick $count distinct elements from the list at random.

Synopsis

my @picks = sample $count, @values;
my @three = sample 3, 1..100;

What you get back

A list of at most $count elements drawn without replacement. If $count is larger than the input, every element is returned in a random order — i.e. the function degrades to shuffle. The random source is $List::Util::RAND if set, otherwise perl’s built-in rand().

Examples

my @preview = sample 5, @articles;
my ($winner) = sample 1, @entries;
my @all     = sample 999, qw( a b c );   # ('c','a','b') say

Edge cases

• $count <= 0 returns the empty list.

• Fewer inputs than $count returns all inputs, shuffled.

Differences from upstream

Fully compatible with upstream.

See also

• shuffle — permute the whole list.

• head — deterministic prefix (no randomness).