[Tutor] random.choice()

[Cédric Lucantis]

Le Tuesday 01 July 2008 15:04:11 Dick Moores, vous avez écrit :
> At 05:43 AM 7/1/2008, Tim Golden wrote:
> >Dick Moores wrote:
> >>So I want to randomly choose between them. I thought that I might
> >>be able to use choice() to do that. So,
> >>      (bunch of functions here)
> >>if __name__ == '__main__':
> >>     choice([use_for_float_demo(), use_for_integer_demo()])
> >>I find that what's gets run each time is BOTH of these functions,
> >>first use_for_float_demo(), and then use_for_integer_demo()!  What's
> >> going on?
> >
> >What you *want* to do is choose one of two functions, and call
> >whichever is chosen:
> >
> >fn = choice ([a, b])
> >result = fn ()
> >
> >What you're *actually* doing is calling two functions, and returning
> >one result or the other:
> >
> >result = choice ([a (), b ()])
>
> I'm not sure I understand the distinction. It seems you're saying in
> either case I get one result or the other. In fact, each time I run
> the program, I get BOTH results.
>

You _see_ both results because _you_ call both functions. choice() has nothing 
to do with that. Here's an example:

>>> def foo1() : print 'running foo1'; return 'bar1'
>>> def foo2() : print 'running foo2'; return 'bar2'

>>> [foo1(), foo2()]
running foo1
running foo2
['bar1', 'bar2']

>>> [foo1, foo2]
[<function foo1 at 0x2b88257fc140>, <function foo2 at 0x2b88257fc230>]

Do you see the difference now ? In the first case you call the two functions 
and store their returned value in the list, while in the second you only 
store the function objects themselves without calling them. You want the 
second one.

-- 
Cédric Lucantis