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Random number generator with awk

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Random number generator with awk

 
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  #1
Jun 10th, 2008
I am trying to print a random line from a text file that has 10 lines. The problem that I run into is that it sometimes picks the number "0" which is not a line in the text file. How would I have it pick a random number between 1-10?

Shell Scripting Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
  1. #!/bin/bash
  2.  
  3. RANGE=10
  4. number=$RANDOM
  5. let "number %= $RANGE"
  6. NAME=$(awk 'NR=='$number'{print;exit}' /home/names)
  7. 	echo "$NAME"

Thanks to anyone who can help.
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Re: Random number generator with awk

 
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  #2
Jun 10th, 2008
The range as it stands will run from 0 to 9
So add 1 to it, to get 1 to 10
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Re: Random number generator with awk

 
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  #3
Jun 10th, 2008
Thanks!

Shell Scripting Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
  1. #!/bin/bash
  2.  
  3. RANGE=10
  4. number=$RANDOM
  5. let "number %= $RANGE"
  6. NAME=$(awk 'NR=='$number+1'{print;exit}' /home/eric/names)
  7. 	echo "$NAME"
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Re: Random number generator with awk

 
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  #4
Jun 11th, 2008
do it using awk's srand() and rand().
Shell Scripting Syntax (Toggle Plain Text) 
  1. awk 'BEGIN{
  2.   srand()
  3.   num=int(rand() * 10) +  1
  4. }
  5. NR==num' file
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