Randomly choose between two names in batch

Question

I'm trying to get a batch script to randomly choose between two names and output one at a time, kinda something like this:

@echo off
::I would not be prompted to enter these, they would already be programmed into the script.
ChooseRandomSet=Maria
                Sean
                Matt
                Laura
ChooseRandom

So, then on the user side, you would see:

C:\>script.bat
Matt was randomly chosen.
C:\>script.bat
Sean was randomly chosen.
C:\>

Thanks!

Possible duplicate of [Get a random sentence from a selection each time in Batch](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15531745/get-a-random-sentence-from-a-selection-each-time-in-batch) — JosefZ, Feb 06 '17 at 08:24

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 06 '17 at 08:31

First create a text file with all the names on separate lines:

Maria
Sean
Matt
Laura

Then create a .bat file with the following code:

@ECHO OFF
IF "%~1"=="" (ECHO No text file specified & GOTO :EOF)
IF NOT EXIST %1 (ECHO Text file doesn't exist. & GOTO :EOF)
FOR /F "" %%I IN ('FIND /C /V "" ^<%1') DO SET /A lines=%%I
IF %lines%==0 (ECHO Text file is empty or unreadable & GOTO :EOF)
SET /A skip=(%RANDOM%*32768+%RANDOM%)%%lines
<%1 (
  FOR /L %%I IN (1,1,%skip%) DO (
    SET /P line=
  )
  SET line=
  SET /P line=
)
ECHO(%line%

This will print out a name from the file, it will also check for certain errors like:

No text file specified
File specified but non-existent
Empty text file

Disclaimer: I used this bat script for something but I didn't write it, I might've changed a few things over the years but it's largely as I found it a while back. (not a Windows guy myself.. :P)

Wow! This is better than I originally thought! Thank you! – ditheredtransparency Feb 06 '17 at 08:34 — ditheredtransparency, Feb 06 '17 at 08:34
No problem, enjoy! – Rick van Lieshout Feb 06 '17 at 08:43 — Rick van Lieshout, Feb 06 '17 at 08:43

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 10 '17 at 19:43

0

Update: I also found an answer to this myself just by experimenting. This chooses one option out of two possible choices:

@echo off
if %random% gtr %random% (
      echo heads
) else (
echo tails
pause

answered Feb 10 '17 at 19:43

ditheredtransparency

475
3
10
18

Randomly choose between two names in batch

2 Answers2