Data::...rdList(3pm)

🦋 Data::...rdList(3pm) — bestie edition

okay so first things first, the manual page name is Data::...rdList(3pm) (yes, the truncated one, that's just how it shows up in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section, don't @ me), and it's literally all about Data::Random::WordList.

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✨ NAME ✨

Data::Random::WordList — a Perl module that gets you random words out of a word list. that's it, that's the whole vibe 💖

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

like, here's the whole thing in action:

use Data::Random::WordList;

my $wl = new Data::Random::WordList( wordlist => '/usr/share/dict/words' );

my @rand_words = $wl->get_words(10);

$wl->close();

periodt. 💅

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

so Data::Random::WordList is a module that manages a file containing a list of words. it's giving "file handler but make it cute."

the module expects each line of the word list file to contain only one word. which means you could lowkey also use it to pick random lines out of any file — but for coherency's sake, the docs are gonna keep calling every line a "word". commit to the bit, bestie. 🎀

the module uses a persistent filehandle, so there isn't a lot of overhead every single time you wanna fetch a list of random words. no cap. but — and this is the tea — it's much more efficient to grab multiple words at a time than it is to fetch one word at a time multiple times. so batch it, don't be out here doing it one by one like a menace. 🙈

the module also refrains from reading the whole file into memory, so it can be safer to use with larger files. icon behavior, honestly. it's giving mindful. 🌈

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🔥 METHODS 🔥

🫶 new()

returns a reference to a new Data::Random::WordList object. use the wordlist param to initialize the object:

• wordlist — the path to the wordlist file. if a path isn't supplied, the wordlist distributed with this module is used. built-in wordlist, no setup, slay. ✨

🍓 get_words([NUM])

NUM contains the number of words you want from the wordlist. NUM defaults to 1 if it's not specified.

⚠️ heads up bestie: get_words() dies if NUM is greater than the number of words in the wordlist. so don't ask for more than there is, the vibes will not survive it. 💀

this function returns an array or an array reference depending on the context in which it's called. context-sensitive king 👑

🧚 close()

closes the filehandle associated with the word list. it's good practice to do this every time you're done with the word list. clean up after yourself, main character energy. 🎀

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⭐ VERSION ⭐

0.12

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

• Originally written by: Adekunle Olonoh
• Currently maintained by: Buddy Burden (barefoot@cpan.org), starting with version 0.06

like okay royalty, we see you 🫡

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💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

Copyright (c) 2000-2011 Adekunle Olonoh. Copyright (c) 2011-2015 Buddy Burden. All rights reserved. This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

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🌟 SEE ALSO 🌟

• Data::Random

iykyk 🦋

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and that's the whole page, bestie! this was perl v5.40.1, dated 2026-03-12, living in the User Contributed Perl Documentation section as Data::...rdList(3pm). go forth and pull random words responsibly, no cap 💅✨