[issue24567] random.choice IndexError due to double-rounding

[Steven D'Aprano]

New submission from Steven D'Aprano:

While investigating issue 24546, I discovered that at least some versions of Python on 32-bit Linux have a double-rounding bug in multiplication which may lead to an unexpected IndexError in random.choice.

See http://bugs.python.org/issue24546 for additional discussion, but the short version is that due to double-rounding, if random.random returns (1. - 2.**-53), int(i * random.random()) may return 1 for some i >= 2049, and random.choice will then evaluate seq[len(seq)], raising IndexError.

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messages: 246291
nosy: Serge Anuchin, haypo, mark.dickinson, r.david.murray, rhettinger, serhiy.storchaka, skrah, steven.daprano, tim.peters
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: random.choice IndexError due to double-rounding
type: behavior
versions: Python 2.7, Python 3.2, Python 3.3, Python 3.4, Python 3.5, Python 3.6

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Python tracker <report at bugs.python.org>
<http://bugs.python.org/issue24567>
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