Version 1.9 of Randomize

NAME

Randomize - Perl extension for randomizing things.

SYNOPSIS

use Randomize;
my $randomizer = Randomize->new(\@rules); print "There are ", $randomizer->permutations(),

" different possible outcomes.\n"; while (1) {
my $random_hash = $randomizer->generate(); }

DESCRIPTION

This packages takes a set of randomization rules in the form of an array reference, and creates random hashes on request based on the rules given.

I know that doesn't make sense, so here's an example.

my @randomizer_rules =

      [ {Field  => 'Street',
         Values => [{Data   => ['Preston', 'Hillcrest'],
                     Weight => 1},
                    {Data   => ['Coit'],
                     Weight => 2}]},
        {Field  => 'Number', 
         Values => [18100..18299]}
      };

my $randomizer = Randomize->new(\@randomizer_rules); while (1)
my $hashref = $randomizer->generate(); }

Each time through the loop, $hashref contains a reference to a hash. That hash contains two fields, "Street", and "Number". "Street" will be "Coit" about half the time, and evenly split between "Preston" and "Hillcrest" the rest of the time. "Number" is a number from 18100 to 18299.

INSTALLATION

perl Makefile.PL
make
make test
make install

Note that during "make test", I try to verify that Randomize is, indeed, generating random hashes. Occasionally, the results for a given "make test" may be a little skewed because of the vagaries of random number generation. So, if one of those test cases fails, just re-run "make test" and see if it happens again.

AUTHOR

Brand Hilton <bhilton@pobox.com>

COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (c) 2001, Brand Hilton. All Rights Reserved.
     This module is free software. It may be used, redistributed
         and/or modified under the same terms as Perl itself.

CHANGES FROM VERSION 1.7 TO VERSION 1.9

Added permutations() method

Fixed a bug that would cause problems if you used both varieties of Retry_If at the same time

Documentation updates

AVAILABILITY

Randomize is available on CPAN.