random number including 1 - i.e. [0,1]

[Mensanator]

On Jun 9, 6:05 pm, "Gabriel Genellina" <gagsl-... at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:
> En Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:33:39 -0300, Esmail <ebo... at hotmail.com> escribió:
>
> > random.random() will generate a random value in the range [0, 1).
>
> > Is there an easy way to generate random values in the range [0, 1]?
> > I.e., including 1?
>
> I think you shouldn't worry about that - the difference may be as small as  
> 2**-53, or 0.0000000000000001
>
> > I am implementing an algorithm and want to stay as true to the
> > original design specifications as possible though I suppose the
> > difference between the two max values might be minimal.
>
> > ps: I'm confused by the docs for uniform():
>
> > random.uniform(a, b)
> >      Return a random floating point number N such that a <= N <= b for a  
> > <= b
>
> > this seems to imply an inclusive range, ie. [a,b]
>
> random() guarantees a semi-open interval (could return 0, but never 1).  
> But once you start to operate with the numbers, the limits become fuzzy.
>
> a<b & n>0 => n.a<n.b
>
> The above holds for real numbers but not always for floating point  
> arithmetic, so one cannot guarantee the semi-open interval anymore:
>
> py> a=10.0
> py> b=11.0
> py> z = 0.9999999999999999  # assume random.random returned this
> py> z<1
> True

That means the interval is still [0,1). To put it another way:

>>> z=0.9999999999999999
>>> z==1
False

> py> a+(b-a)*z < b # the expression used for uniform(a,b)
> False
> py> a+(b-a)*z
> 11.0

What you do with the number after it's created is not
random's concern.

>
> The docs are already updated to reflect this:http://svn.python.org/view/python/trunk/Doc/library/random.rst?r1=687...

The docs are now wrong. Why would they do that?

>
> --
> Gabriel Genellina