How to print random strings

[theboringdays@gmail.com]

Im at the end of chapter 3 of "Python Programming For The Absolute
Beginner, Michael Dawson " and he asks to make a fortune program that
displays a fortune each time its ran, and to have 5 unique fortunes.

Whats confusing is that, he never discussed how to do this. The only
thing he talked about was using random.randrang e() and I tried that
with text but it seems like its only for integers as it complains when
I put text in the argument.

So how would I go about have 5 strings, and running a program that will
randomly pick one of those to print?

I think he may have forgot to cover something?

[Jorge Godoy]

Re: How to print random strings

theboringdays@g mail.com writes:
[color=blue]
> Im at the end of chapter 3 of "Python Programming For The Absolute
> Beginner, Michael Dawson " and he asks to make a fortune program that
> displays a fortune each time its ran, and to have 5 unique fortunes.
>
> Whats confusing is that, he never discussed how to do this. The only
> thing he talked about was using random.randrang e() and I tried that
> with text but it seems like its only for integers as it complains when
> I put text in the argument.
>
> So how would I go about have 5 strings, and running a program that will
> randomly pick one of those to print?
>
> I think he may have forgot to cover something?[/color]

How about using the integer as an index to access the elements of a list? ;-)

--
Jorge Godoy <godoy@ieee.org >

[Mike Meyer]

Re: How to print random strings

theboringdays@g mail.com writes:
[color=blue]
> Im at the end of chapter 3 of "Python Programming For The Absolute
> Beginner, Michael Dawson " and he asks to make a fortune program that
> displays a fortune each time its ran, and to have 5 unique fortunes.
>
> Whats confusing is that, he never discussed how to do this. The only
> thing he talked about was using random.randrang e() and I tried that
> with text but it seems like its only for integers as it complains when
> I put text in the argument.
>
> So how would I go about have 5 strings, and running a program that will
> randomly pick one of those to print?
>
> I think he may have forgot to cover something?[/color]

Well, randrange can be used to do this, but random.choice is more
pythonic.

<mike
--
Mike Meyer <mwm@mired.or g> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.

[Magnus Lycka]

Re: How to print random strings

theboringdays@g mail.com wrote:[color=blue]
> So how would I go about have 5 strings, and running a program that will
> randomly pick one of those to print?[/color]
[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> import random
>>> text = "Perhaps reading the manual is a good idea?".split()
>>> random.choice(t ext)[/color][/color][/color]
'is'[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> random.choice(t ext)[/color][/color][/color]
'reading'[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> random.choice(t ext)[/color][/color][/color]
'a'[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> random.choice(t ext)[/color][/color][/color]
'the'[color=blue][color=green][color=darkred]
>>> random.choice(t ext)[/color][/color][/color]
'Perhaps'

See http://docs.python.org/lib/module-random.html

[nak]

Re: How to print random strings

theboringdays@g mail.com wrote:[color=blue]
> Im at the end of chapter 3 of "Python Programming For The Absolute
> Beginner, Michael Dawson " and he asks to make a fortune program that
> displays a fortune each time its ran, and to have 5 unique fortunes.
>
> Whats confusing is that, he never discussed how to do this. The only
> thing he talked about was using random.randrang e() and I tried that
> with text but it seems like its only for integers as it complains when
> I put text in the argument.
>
> So how would I go about have 5 strings, and running a program that will
> randomly pick one of those to print?
>
> I think he may have forgot to cover something?[/color]

The fortune cookie program can be made by copying the code for 'Mood
Computer' on page 64 and 65. So it could be something like:

import random
print "Welcome to the Fortune cookie program"
fortune = random.randrang e(3)
if fortune == 0:
print "some fortune1"
elif fortune == 1:
print "some fortune2"
elif fortune == 2:
print "some fortune3"