number generator

[Alex Martelli]

Raymond Hettinger <python at rcn.com> wrote:

> [Alex Martelli]
> >   map([random.randrange(5) for i in xrange(45)].count, xrange(5))
> >
> > i.e., this gives 5 integers (each between 0 and 45 included) summing to
> > 45 -- add 1 to each of them to get the desired result.
> 
> This is a really nice approach.  Besides being fast, it is not too
> hard to see that it is correct.
> 
> FWIW, here's a variant with a count using the new defaultdict:
> 
> n, m = 5, 45
> bag = collections.defaultdict(int)
> for i in xrange(m):
>     bag[random.randrange(n)] += 1
> ans = [bag[k] for k in range(n)]

Neat -- and you can use 1+bag[k] in the LC to adjust the results if
needed, of course.


Alex