Random numbers and alphabet mixture

[jumperbl]

Hi,

I am a noob and I was wondering if there is way to generate random mixture of alphabets and numbers? For example:

1234567890ABCDE FG
or
4BA92ABD293BC38 90

the length needs to be 17 characters long.

[jlm699]

Hi,

I am a noob and I was wondering if there is way to generate random mixture of alphabets and numbers? For example:

1234567890ABCDE FG
or
4BA92ABD293BC38 90

the length needs to be 17 characters long.

How about this list comprehension:
[code=python]
>>> ''.join([chr([random.randrang e(48,58),random .randrange(65,9 1)][random.randint( 0,1)]) for x in xrange(17)])
'3E4F8F756F584Z 8XU'
[/code]

Or in non-comprehension form:
[code=python]
import random

rstring = ''
for x in xrange(17):
rint = random.randint( 0,1)
if rint:
rstring += chr(random.rand range(48,58))
else:
rstring += chr(random.rand range(65,91))

>>> rstring
'T374TX07KEP031 F17'
[/code]

[bvdet]

Hi,

I am a noob and I was wondering if there is way to generate random mixture of alphabets and numbers? For example:

1234567890ABCDE FG
or
4BA92ABD293BC38 90

the length needs to be 17 characters long.

That is easily done with the random.choice() function, a list or string of character choices, and a list comprehension or for loop. Select a character from the choices 17 times, and join or concatenate the characters. Try coding yourself and post back.

Example output from a variable characters, 10 random strings:

>>> characters
'abcdefghijklmn opqrstuvwxyzABC DEFGHIJKLMNOPQR STUVWXYZ0123456 789'
>>> j5jSeP4etag0Euc N0
BAlxpfUfXnEjBNa L6
dB0GSaCFZMRg2Dr qK
uMLz8ivN3cm8k8M CC
b6qHuPAf7ATYsLI jd
cfYmLEfGa66nKZz lJ
ldQd3ouLNSG7ghS u3
vxFn9UHchY8nRe2 Mj
QfbuEMtfjRZJuxA LZ
18TcORlqnZGrOUU rm
>>>

[bvdet]

Now that we have some code in this thread, I guess I'll post mine :)
[code=Python]>>> import random
>>> import string
>>> characters = string.letters+ string.digits
>>> no_chrs = 17
>>> print ''.join([random.choice(c haracters) for _ in range(no_chrs)])
uGAGd5Er82VOFsj wh
>>> [/code]

[jumperbl]

thanks guys for the help.

[jumperbl]

[QUOTE=jlm699]How about this list comprehension:
[code=python]
>>> ''.join([chr([random.randrang e(48,58),random .randrange(65,9 1)][random.randint( 0,1)]) for x in xrange(17)])
'3E4F8F756F584Z 8XU'
[/code]

I am trying to understand this. So, you have a chr range of 0-9[48,58] and A-Z[65-91], but what is random.randint( 0,1) is that step by one? I don't understand this. I like how this is written, but hopefully someone can explain.

[jlm699]

what is random.randint( 0,1) is that step by one? I don't understand this.

No that is an obfuscated way to randomly choose between one of two choices.
Let's say you have a list tst = ['a', 'b']
Element 0 (tst[0]) is 'a' and element 1 (tst[1]) is 'b'. So let's say instead of storing the list to a variable tst you simply use the list itself:
[code=python]
>>> ['a', 'b'][0]
'a'
>>> ['a', 'b'][1]
'b'
[/code]
Now if we put random.randint( 0,1) in place of the index specifier, we have a randomly chosen element from the list picked
[code=[python]
>>> import random
>>> ['a', 'b'][random.randint( 0,1)]
'b'
>>> ['a', 'b'][random.randint( 0,1)]
'a'
>>> [/code]
So in my code example I have the random letter and the random number pickers contained in a ad-hoc list [random_letter, random_number] and an element is chosen based on the result of randint(0,1). Does that clear it up a little bit? Unfortunately, this is not the best practice in terms of computing efficiency as a random letter and two random numbers are generated on each iteration (actually three random numbers), whereas bvdet's solution only requires one random number (index of list) to be generated.

[bvdet]

How about this list comprehension:
[code=python]
>>> ''.join([chr([random.randrang e(48,58),random .randrange(65,9 1)][random.randint( 0,1)]) for x in xrange(17)])
'3E4F8F756F584Z 8XU'
[/code]

I am trying to understand this. So, you have a chr range of 0-9[48,58] and A-Z[65-91], but what is random.randint( 0,1) is that step by one? I don't understand this. I like how this is written, but hopefully someone can explain.

Breaking it up into two parts:
[code=Python]
>>> (chr(random.ran drange(48,58)), chr(random.rand range(65,91)))
('6', 'O')
>>> (chr(random.ran drange(48,58)), chr(random.rand range(65,91)))
('8', 'Y')
>>> random.randint( 0,1)
0
>>> random.randint( 0,1)
1
>>> (chr(random.ran drange(48,58)), chr(random.rand range(65,91)))[random.randint( 0,1)]
'T'
>>> (chr(random.ran drange(48,58)), chr(random.rand range(65,91)))[random.randint( 0,1)]
'R'
>>> (chr(random.ran drange(48,58)), chr(random.rand range(65,91)))[random.randint( 0,1)]
'3'
>>> [/code]#1 - Create a tuple containing a letter and a number
#2 - Take a slice of the tuple (using random.randint( 0,1)) to produce a random letter or number

[jumperbl]

Thanks that helps. Makes sense now.

No that is an obfuscated way to randomly choose between one of two choices.
Let's say you have a list tst = ['a', 'b']
Element 0 (tst[0]) is 'a' and element 1 (tst[1]) is 'b'. So let's say instead of storing the list to a variable tst you simply use the list itself:
[code=python]
>>> ['a', 'b'][0]
'a'
>>> ['a', 'b'][1]
'b'
[/code]
Now if we put random.randint( 0,1) in place of the index specifier, we have a randomly chosen element from the list picked
[code=[python]
>>> import random
>>> ['a', 'b'][random.randint( 0,1)]
'b'
>>> ['a', 'b'][random.randint( 0,1)]
'a'
>>> [/code]
So in my code example I have the random letter and the random number pickers contained in a ad-hoc list [random_letter, random_number] and an element is chosen based on the result of randint(0,1). Does that clear it up a little bit? Unfortunately, this is not the best practice in terms of computing efficiency as a random letter and two random numbers are generated on each iteration (actually three random numbers), whereas bvdet's solution only requires one random number (index of list) to be generated.