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Jamel Stringer
Courses Plus Student 906 PointsRandom item
I am very new to this and not sure what I am doing wrong, any help would be much appreciated. Here is the question:
You've seen how random.choice() works. It gets a random member from an iterable (like a list or a string). I want you to try and reproduce it yourself. First, import the random library. Then create a function named random_item that takes a single argument, an iterable. Then use random.randint() to get a random number between 0 and the length of the iterable, minus one. Return the iterable member that's at your random number's index. Check the file for an example.
import random
word = "Teamtreehouse"
def random_item(word):
randomNumber = random.randint(0, len(word)) - 1
return randomNumber
# random_item("Treehouse")
# The randomly selected number is 4.
# The return value would be "h"
2 Answers
Steve Hunter
57,712 PointsHi Jamel,
You've pretty much got that right.
The last line is the issue. The challenge wants you to return the iterable member that's at your random number's index - the comments give an example.
Use the iterable word as an array an access its elements using square brackets - return that value (a letter). That would look like return word[randomNumber]. Replace your return statement with that.
I hope that helps,
Steve.
Jamel Stringer
Courses Plus Student 906 PointsThank you Steve for that explanation! I thought that by using the randint method it would pick one of the letters in the variable, but as I am writing this I am realizing that the method is literally just randomly choosing a number not to exceed the length of the information in the variable. Now, if I actually want to get the letter that is in the number place that was randomly provided from the method I would have to treat the word as an index when returning and place my randint variable as a parameter as the index value.
Steve Hunter
57,712 PointsPerfect explanation - you got it! 
