Eurovision bingo board generator

ev-bingo-board.lua

bingo_words = {"\\textit{Love}",
 "\\textit{Peace}",
 "\\textit{Heart}",
 "\\textit{Family}",
 "\\textit{Europe}",
 "\\textit{Baku}",
 "\\textit{Eurovision}",
 "\\textit{Together}",
 "\\textit{One}",
 "Instrumental section",
 "Vocal section",
 "Reprise section",
 "Fireworks/pyrotechnics",
 "Futuristic looking instruments",
 "Clowns",
 "Traditional/national dancing",
 "Name of any European capital"}

function table.copy(t)
  local u = { }
  for k, v in pairs(t) do u[k] = v end
  return setmetatable(u, getmetatable(t))
end

function takeWord(list)
 return table.remove(bingo_words, math.random(table.getn(bingo_words)))
end

function getWords(input)
 local data = table.copy(input)
 heap = {}
 for index = 1,12 do
   table.insert(heap,table.remove(data, math.random(table.getn(data))))
 end
 return heap
end

function insert_blanks(input)
 local data = table.copy(input)
 for index = 1,2 do
   table.insert(data, math.random(table.getn(data)), "")
 end
 return data
end

function build_table(input)
 local data = table.copy(input)
 local data_string = ""
 for index = 1,table.getn(data) do
  data_string = data_string .. data[index]
  if math.mod(index, 4) == 0 then
   data_string = data_string .. " \\nl "
  else
   data_string = data_string .. " & "
  end
 end
 return data_string
end

tex.print(build_table(getWords(bingo_words)))

ev-bingo-board.tex

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{array}
\usepackage{calc}
\usepackage{pgffor}
\usepackage{helvet}
\renewcommand{\familydefault}{\sfdefault}
\usepackage[landscape,a5paper]{geometry}
\geometry{verbose,tmargin=0.2cm,bmargin=0.2cm,lmargin=0.2cm,rmargin=0.2cm,headheight=0cm,headsep=0cm,footskip=0cm}
\setlength{\parindent}{0pt}

\newlength\celldim
\newlength\fontheight
\newlength\extraheight
\newcounter{sqcolumns}

\newcolumntype{S}{
 @{}
 >{\centering \rule[-0.5\extraheight]{0pt}{\fontheight + \extraheight}%
 \begin{minipage}{\celldim}\centering}
 p{\celldim}
 <{\end{minipage}} 
 @{} }

\newcolumntype{Z}{ @{} >{\centering} p{\celldim} @{} }

\newenvironment{squarecells}[1]
  {\setlength\celldim{0.244\paperwidth}%
   \settoheight\fontheight{A}%
   \setlength\extraheight{\celldim - 1.72\fontheight}%
   \setcounter{sqcolumns}{#1 - 1}%
   \begin{tabular}{|S|*{\value{sqcolumns}}{Z|}}\hline}
% squarecells tabular goes here
  {\end{tabular}}

\newcommand\nl{\tabularnewline\hline}

\begin{document}
\typein[\boardcount]{How many boards do you want? }
\pagenumbering{gobble}
  \huge
  \foreach \n in {1,...,\boardcount} {%
    \begin{squarecells}{4}%
    \directlua{ dofile('ev-bingo-board.lua') }%
    \end{squarecells}%
    \newpage%
  }
\end{document}