[New-bugs-announce] [issue6261] Clarify behaviour of random.uniform

[Mark Dickinson]

New submission from Mark Dickinson <dickinsm at gmail.com>:

The documentation for random.uniform() was recently updated to reflect 
the fact that it's possible for random.uniform(a, b) to produce the 
value b;  see issue 4979.

In a recent c.l.p. thread, Robert Kern suggested that 'it 
might be confusing to a user why random.random() returns values in a 
half-open interval while random.uniform() claims a closed interval';  
the thread itself confirms this potential for confusion.  See

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2009-June/715851.html

Suggested extra wording for random.uniform, from Robert Kern:

"Due to floating point arithmetic, for some values of a and b, b may or 
may not be one of the possible generated results."

----------
assignee: georg.brandl
components: Documentation
messages: 89232
nosy: georg.brandl, marketdickinson
severity: normal
status: open
title: Clarify behaviour of random.uniform
versions: Python 2.6, Python 2.7, Python 3.0, Python 3.1, Python 3.2

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue6261>
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