Date: 2008feb14 Language: C++ Q. How do I output a file in random order like the shuf command? A. This code does the trick. Its compact and efficient.

#include <stdio.h> #include <errno.h> #include <string> #include <vector> #include <algorithm> typedef std::vector<std::string> LINES; bool readfile(const char *file, LINES &lines) { FILE *f; char buf[5*1024+1]; char *p; if ((f = fopen(file, "r")) == NULL) { fprintf(stderr, "Could not open %s because %s\n", file, strerror(errno)); return false; } for (;;) { if (fgets(buf, sizeof(buf), f) == NULL) break; if ((p = strchr(buf, '\n')) != NULL) *p = '\0'; // Remove newline lines.push_back(buf); } fclose(f); return true; } bool shuffle(const char *file) { LINES lines; LINES::iterator it; if (!readfile(file, lines)) return false; srand(time(NULL)); random_shuffle(lines.begin(), lines.end()); for (it = lines.begin(); it != lines.end(); it++) { printf("%s\n", it->c_str()); } return true; } main() { shuffle("myfile.txt"); }