import sys from random import randint check_start = False prefix = '' num = 1 if len(sys.argv) == 1: print("ERROR: Please include a filename") print("Usage: frand [] [n=]") sys.exit(0) fn = sys.argv[1] for i in range(2, len(sys.argv)): if sys.argv[i].startswith("n="): num = int(sys.argv[i][2:]) else: prefix = sys.argv[i] check_start = True lines = [] with open(fn) as f: for line in f: nline = line.replace("\n", "") lines.append(nline) for x in range(0, num): if check_start: line_sub = [] for i in lines: if i.startswith(prefix): line_sub.append(i) numitems = len(line_sub) i = randint(0,numitems-1) print(line_sub[i]) else: numitems = len(lines) i = randint(0,numitems-1) print(lines[i])