Random list

The following question was asked on #haskell:

   How would I print an infinite stream of random strings, generated from an argument list?

The easy way to do this is to use an infinite list of randoms, and use that to index the argument list. This illustrates the use of lazy, infinite lists quite nicely.

import System.Random
import Control.Monad
import System.Environment

main = do
    g    <- newStdGen       -- get a new random generator
    args <- getArgs         -- get the arguments

    -- do some error checking
    when (null args) $ print "Usage: ./a.out [arg1 ... argn]"

    -- generate an infinite list of random numbers
    -- and now use them to generate an infinite list of strings 
    -- print them out

    let ns   = randomRs (0,length args-1) g
        strs = map (args !!) ns
    mapM_ putStrLn strs

when run, produces:

   $ runhaskell A.hs the quick brown fox 
   the
   fox
   fox
   brown
   quick
   brown
   fox
   quick
   brown
   quick
   brown
   quick
   the
   brown
   brown
   quick
   brown
   brown
   quick
   brown
   fox
   quick
   quick
   the
   fox
   quick
   ...

See also

• Examples/Random list