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Python Python Collections (Retired) Dungeon Game Random Choices

Posted by Anthony Pino
Anthony Pino
5,522 Points

Hi There, I think I've got it correct (using python outside of workspaces to run the code), but it says try again.

Code that I have is, (sorry for the terrible variable naming, was trying different names to see if that made a difference):

iterable = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]  
integer = 4  


def nchoices(twoname,onename):  
     mlist = list()   
     count = onename  
     while count > 0:  
       count -= 1  
       mlist.append(random.choice(twoname))  
       continue  
    return(mlist)  


nchoices(iterable,integer)
Anthony Pino
Anthony Pino
5,522 Points

NB. Indentation doesn't seem to be working when using the comments.

3 Answers

Kenneth Love
STAFF
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Kenneth Love
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest Teacher

So trying your exact code up there locally, I get an NameError that random isn't defined, so make sure you have the import.

Once I import random, though, the code works and get me 4 items from the iterable.

Your code has some strange design decisions, from the Python side, but it's code that works. If you want, I'm happy to go through what I see as being "unPythonic" code.

Anthony Pino
Anthony Pino
5,522 Points
Anthony Pino
Anthony Pino
5,522 Points

Hi Kenneth,

Thanks for the answer. Yes if you do have the time please let me know with regards to python style coding. I do a sort of hack mix and match.

Thanks for the Answer Cheers Anthony

Kenneth Love
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest Teacher
Kenneth Love
Kenneth Love
Treehouse Guest Teacher

OK. Here goes:

  • The continue is unnecessary. Since it's reached the end of the loop, it'll continue anyway.
  • The count and onename stuff is pretty unnecessary, too, since you can just loop through the contents of a list (for x in y:) and you can make that list using range().
  • return isn't a function, so you don't need to have parentheses. I can't think of a situation where it should ever matter, though.

To rewrite your code, I'd write it like this:

iterable = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9]  
integer = 4  


def nchoices(iter, num):  
     mlist = list()
     for step in range(num):
          mlist.append(random.choice(iter))  
     return mlist

nchoices(iterable,integer)
Anthony Pino
Anthony Pino
5,522 Points
Anthony Pino
Anthony Pino
5,522 Points

Cheers Kenneth,

Much appreciated -Anthony