problem with the do-until loop

Hi,



I want to generate 6 random numbers from 1 to 10.

The 6 numbers must not the same.

These numbers must match to the number of an array.

I like to know how many iterations to get the match.



I am having troubles with the do-until loop. Could someone point out the
problem for me?



#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# generate 6 random numbers (1~10) that match exactly to the @ticket

# count the number of loops



use strict;

srand(time||$$);



my @ticket = sort (2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10);

my @all_number = ();

my @new_number = ();

my $count = 0;



# generate 10 numbers

for (my $i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {

my $number = $i + 1;

push (@all_number, $number)

}



do {

#reset @new_number to the empty array each time through the loop.

@new_number = ();



#get 6 random numbers

for (my $i = 0; $i < 6; $i++) {

my $position = randomposition (@all_number);

# Pick a random number from @all_number

my $number = splice (@all_number, $position, 1);

push (@new_number, $number);

}

@new_number = sort (@new_number);

print "@new_number\n";

$count++;



} until (($new_number[0] eq "$ticket[0]") && ($new_number[1] eq
"$ticket[1]")

&& ($new_number[2] eq "$ticket[2]") && ($new_number[3] eq
"$ticket[3]")

&& ($new_number[4] eq "$ticket[4]") && ($new_number[5] eq
"$ticket[5]"));



print $count, "\n";



 ########################################
##################

sub randomposition {

my(@all_number) = @_;

# This expression returns a random number

return int(rand(scalar(@all_number)));

}

It may all become much simpler once the syntax is cleaned up and
simplified.

For example, you can reduce

> my @all_number = ();
...
> # generate 10 numbers
>
> for (my $i = 0; $i < 10; $i++) {
>
>     my $number = $i + 1;
>
>     push (@all_number, $number)
>
> }

to

my @all_number = (1..10);

and reduce

>      #get 6 random numbers
>
>        for (my $i = 0; $i < 6; $i++) {
>
>         my $position = randomposition (@all_number);
>
>         # Pick a random number from @all_number
>
>         my $number = splice (@all_number, $position, 1);
>
>         push (@new_number, $number);
>
>       }

to

for (1..6) {
push @new_number, randomposition;
}

and

> sub randomposition {
>
>     my(@all_number) = @_;
>
>     # This expression returns a random number
>
>     return int(rand(scalar(@all_number)));
>
> }

to

sub randomposition {
# return random number between 1 and 10;
return int(rand 10)+1;
}

But I still don't quite understand what you are trying to accomplish.

Do you want to count how many tries it takes to get a copy of an array
by generating random numbers? What for? The count you would get will be
random anyway. There are statistical functions for this sort of thing.
Or maybe I completely misunderstood your purpose.