#!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; my $m = 3; ## lines in each set my $j = 2; ## lines that should get printed my $i = 0; while () { $i++; print; ## skip if ($i == $j) { while $i++ != $m; $i = 0; } } __DATA__ foo 1 2 3 foo 2 3 4 foo 4 5 6 bar a b c bar b c d bar c d e baz q w e baz w e r baz e r t #### #!/usr/bin/perl use warnings; use strict; use List::Util qw/shuffle/; my $m = 3; my $j = 2; MAIN: while (1) { my @set; for (my $i = 0; $i < $m ; $i++) { last MAIN unless defined ($_ = ); push @set, $_; } for ((shuffle @set)[0..$j-1]) { print; } } __DATA__ foo 1 2 3 foo 2 3 4 foo 4 5 6 bar a b c bar b c d bar c d e baz q w e baz w e r baz e r t