Random numbers

Functions

random():

Return the next random floating point number in the range [0.0, 1.0).

seed([x]):

Initialize the basic random number generator. If x is omitted or None, current system time is used; current system time is also used to initialize the generator when the module is first imported.

getState():

Return an object capturing the current internal state of the generator. This object can be passed to setState() to restore the state.

setState(state):

state should have been obtained from a previous call to getState(), and setState() restores the internal state of the generator to what it was at the time setState() was called.

randRange([start=0], stop[, step=1]):

Choose a random item from range(start, stop[, step]) Half-open range, i.e does Not include stop

choice(seq):

Return a random element from the non-empty sequence seq.

shuffle(values):

Shuffles an array using the Fisher-Yates algorithm [3] (Knuth). O(N) (in-place algorithm)

Returns the shuffled input array to enable chaining.

(..shuffling an array by sorting using a random comparator is a Bad idea [4])

sample(population, k):

Return a k length list of unique elements chosen from the population sequence. Used for random sampling without replacement.

Returns a new list containing elements from the population while leaving the original population unchanged. The resulting list is in selection order so that all sub-slices will also be valid random samples. This allows raffle winners (the sample) to be partitioned into grand prize and second place winners (the subslices).

Note: does not support iterator as input, use list(iterable).

deal(numItems, opt_func):

Generates a unique random range of numbers from 0..N-1 (or rather f(0)..f(N-1) ) (no number occurs twice. think dealing a deck of cards)

todo: might drop this. equivalent to:

deal = shuffle(map(func || operator.identity, range(numItems)));

uniform(a, b):

Return a random floating point number N such that a <= N <= b for a <= b and b <= N <= a for b < a. The end-point value b may or may not be included in the range depending on floating-point rounding in the equation a + (b-a) * random().