portable-python-random-choice.md

title: Portable python random.choice() function post_date: 2014-02-02 14:20:52 post_name: portable-python-random-choice

Portable python random.choice() function

While writing some unit tests that utilize the Python pseudo-random number generator I discovered an inconsistency between Python 2.7 and 3.3. Even after setting the seed I would get different results using random.choice() under each interpreter version. It took a bit of Googling (the winning search query was "random.choice python2 python3") I found what I was looking for in Google Groups.

It appears that random.choice() in 2.7 and 3.3 looks like:

<script src="https://gist.github.com/mdshw5/8774259.js"></script>

My portable solution was to create a new function choice():

<script src="https://gist.github.com/mdshw5/8774298.js"></script>

Which gives the same result as the Python2.X function but different than the 3.X function:

<script src="https://gist.github.com/mdshw5/8773843.js"></script>

This seems like something that six should handle.