UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi, there folks!

Well, trying again to build exercises for my students I come across the following idea.

Inputfile: csv with two fields (f1 and f2) separated by a tab. Each field contains half a sentence, which added to the one contained in the other field forms a complete sentence (s), so s=f1+f2

Mission: to generate a file in which a sentence is formed by picking randomly one field (f1) form a record ad another random field (f2) from a different record. Could all the records be used to generate sentences? BTW, no repetitions: one field can only be used in one sentence.

Your help would be appreciated soooo much.

All f1 must the the subject, f2 the predicate, or all f1=subject + verb and f2 = object
Create a tab delimited file, example:

Code:

John Smith [tab] ate an apple
Jennie Smith [tab] has an apiary

Code:

# get number of lines in input file, this uses cat on purpose to avoid extra output
lcnt=$(wc -l < inputfile)
rand1=$(( $RANDOM % $lcnt  + 1 ))
rand2=$(( $RANDOM % $lcnt +  1 ))
awk -F 'tab character goes here'  -v r1=rand1 -v r2=rand2  '
             NR==r1 {f1=$1}  NR==r2{f2==$2} {next} END {printf f1,f2  } ' inputfile

Thx JIM for your quick answer.
I am a newbie, but understand that i have to paste your code to a file made executable ... (chmod +x random_fields.sh) and typed in terminal $ ./random_fields.sh to execute it, but get no output... ??

BTW, All f1 must the the subject, f2 the predicate.