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Poor man's unsort (randomize lines)

Terminal - Poor man's unsort (randomize lines)
while read l; do echo -e "$RANDOM\t$l"; done | sort -n | cut -f 2
2011-12-09 01:02:27
User: unixmonkey28183
Functions: cut echo read sort
2
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Poor man's unsort (randomize lines)
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Alternatives

There are 3 alternatives - vote for the best!

Terminal - Alternatives
while read l; do echo $RANDOM "$l"; done | sort -n | cut -d " " -f 2-
2010-02-03 22:36:34
User: ketil
Functions: cut echo read sort
0
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Poor man's unsort (randomize lines)

If you need to randomize the lines in a file, but have an old sort commands that doesn't support the -R option, this could be helpful. It's easy enough to remember so that you can create it as a script and use that.

It ain't real fast. It ain't safe. It ain't super random. Do not use it on untrusted data. It requires bash for the $RANDOM variable to work.

Show sample output | Comments (1) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious
sort --random-sort file
2011-12-10 20:28:54
User: arld101
Functions: sort
Tags: sort random
-1
Up
Down
Poor man's unsort (randomize lines)

Seeing that _sort_ its been used, why not just _use_ it. ;)

Show sample output | Comments (0) | Add to favourites | Report as malicious

Know a better way?

If you can do better, submit your command here.

What others think

sort -R or sort --random-sort also randomize lines without all this processing.

Comment by arld101 75 weeks and 1 day ago

Your point of view

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