Script has random hiccup

[ke5jli]

I am creating a quiz generation script that pulls questions from a file and displays them "randomly". the script calls a .txt file which defines how many questions from each section of the pool to display. while the script functions mostly correctly, it has a random hiccup where it will display a question from the previous section or outright display the same question twice.

#!/usr/bin/perl


$| = 1;

print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";
print "<form method=\"POST\" action=\"MYSCRIPT.cgi\">";


#sub generate_quiz {
$dn=1;
$i = 0;

open(FILE, "data.txt") ;
@lines_in_file = <FILE>;
close(FILE);			

 
open(FILE, "param.txt") ;
@params = <FILE>;
close(FILE);
foreach $linep (@params){
  ($sectionwork,$subsectionwork,$times) = split(/\t/, $linep);
  
  $sectionwork =~ s/\s+//g;
  $subsectionwork =~ s/\s+//g;
  $times =~ s/\s+//g;
  
  
  print "<br><br><b>Debug Line $sectionwork$subsectionwork - $times question(s)</b><br><br>\n\n";
   
   
   
   
  foreach $line (@lines_in_file){
    ($section,$subsection,$number,$answer,$part,$question,$questionimage,$choicea,$choiceb,$choicec,$choiced,$supportingimage,$supportingtext) = split(/\t/, $line);
    
    
    if ($section eq $sectionwork && $subsection eq $subsectionwork){   
      $questions_to_ask[$i] = $line;
      $i++;
      
    }			
  }
  
  local(@temp);
  push(@temp, splice(@questions_to_ask, rand(@questions_to_ask), 1)) 
  while @questions_to_ask;
   
  @questions_to_ask = @temp;
   
  for($i = 0; $i <= $times - 1; $i++){
    $q_num = $i + 1;
    ($section,$subsection,$number,$answer,$part,$question,$questionimage,$choicea,$choiceb,$choicec,$choiced,$supportingimage,$supportingtext) = split(/\t/, $questions_to_ask[$i]);
    $asked[$i] = $questions_to_ask[$i];
    $dispnum++;
    
    print <<end
    <table border="0" cellpadding="2" style="border-collapse: collapse" width="100%">
    <tr>
    <td width="2%" nowrap>$dispnum)</td>
    <td colspan="2">$section$subsection$number $part</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    <td width="2%" nowrap>&nbsp;</td>
    <td colspan="2">$question</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    <td width="2%" nowrap>&nbsp;</td>
    <td width="2%"><input type="radio" value="A" name="Q$dispnum"></td>
    <td width="94%">$choicea</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    <td width="2%" nowrap>&nbsp;</td>
    <td width="2%"><input type="radio" value="B" name="Q$dispnum"></td>
    <td width="94%">$choiceb</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    <td width="2%" nowrap>&nbsp;</td>
    <td width="2%"><input type="radio" value="C" name="Q$dispnum"></td>
    <td width="94%">$choicec</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
    <td width="2%" nowrap>&nbsp;</td>
    <td width="2%"><input type="radio" value="D" name="Q$dispnum"></td>
    <td width="94%">$choiced</td>
    </tr>
    </table>
end
;

 
  }
  
}
print "</form>";
#} #END SUB GENERATE QUIZ

for ease of explanation, the "working script can be viewed at

http://www.greenecountyarc.net/Become/randomquiz/MYSCRIPT.cgi

The Debug Line shows the section and subsection that the current question should be coming from however, this is not always the case. Also, this seems to happen every time the script is run but not in the same location twice.

a zip with all associated files can be found at

http://www.greenecountyarc.net/Become/randomquiz/MyQuiz.zip

Thank You for your time once again!!

 

[KevinADC]

rand() needs something else to prevent duplication. I very recently wrote a FAQ that covers this topic:

Get 'x' number of unique, random, elements from an array





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- Kevin, perl coder unexceptional!