random words from array

Here’s how to to generate random words from an array in Bash using shuf.

FOOD=('Milk' 'Bread' 'Eggs' 'Sausage' 'Grits' 'Banana' 'Oatmeal')
shuf -e ${FOOD[@]}
Milk
Grits
Sausage
Oatmeal
Bread
Banana
Eggs

You can limit output to 3 by piping output using head -n 3.

FOOD=('Milk' 'Bread' 'Eggs' 'Sausage' 'Grits' 'Banana' 'Oatmeal')
shuf -e ${FOOD[@]} | head -n 3
Bread
Sausage
Eggs