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Python

Posted by Joel Crouse
Joel Crouse
4,727 Points

Function/While Loop Issue

Below I've written a script just for fun but have run into a bit of a snag. This is basically the app we made in Python Basics but instead I've made a music player. My problem is that I have a function that generates a random song from the "songs" list and returns the song. What I want to happen is that, inside the while loop, when the user enters "skip" a random song is generated. That isn't what is happening and that's my problem here. Instead of generating a new song when the user enters "skip", the same song is printed each time.

Problem:

random_number = (randint(0, len(songs) - 1))

def random_song():
    return songs[random_number]

if user_input.lower() == "skip":
        new_song = random_song()
        print(new_song)
        session.append(new_song)
        continue

How can I make it so a new song is generated each time the user enters "skip"?

Complete code:

from random import randint

songs = [
    "Radioactive - Image Dragons",
    "Nico And The Niners - Twenty One Pilots",
    "Breezeblocks - alt-J",
    "Apeshit - The Carters",
    "High Hopes - Panic! at the Disco",
    "R.I.P. SCREW - Travis Scott",
    "Emotionless - Drake",
    "All The Stars (with SZA) - Kendrick Lamar",
    "DDU-DU DDU-DU - BLACKPINK",
]

playlist = []

random_number = (randint(0, len(songs) - 1))

def random_song():
    return songs[random_number]

def add_to_playlist(song):
    playlist.append(song)
    print("\n".join(playlist))

while True:
    session = []
    user_input = input("> ")
    if user_input.lower() == "skip":
        new_song = random_song()
        print(new_song)
        session.append(new_song)
        continue 
    elif user_input.lower() == "add":
        add_to_playlist(new_song)
    elif user_input.lower() == "session" or user_input.lower() == "quit"
        print(session)
    else:
        pass
Dave StSomeWhere
Dave StSomeWhere
19,870 Points

I think your issue is that the random number line

random_number = (randint(0, len(songs) - 1))

is only executed once and should be inside the random_song() function to get a new random number each time it is called.

Does that work?

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
243,656 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
243,656 Points

I agree with Dave. Right now, you only generate one random number and use the same one over and over. Moving the assignment into the function should give you a (potentially) different one each time. Since it's random, it will still sometimes be the same one.

Joel Crouse
Joel Crouse
4,727 Points
Joel Crouse
Joel Crouse
4,727 Points

Indeed it worked. Thanks Dave and Steven for your answers!