choosing a random element from a dictionary

[Sean Ross]

here's a couple of ways:

import random    # all of these ways require this module

m = {"hello":"world", "how":"are", "you":"today"}
pick = random.choice(m.keys())
m[pick]

or, if you want a function

def pick(m):
    "returns a random element from dictionary m"
    return m[random.choice(m.keys())]

or, maybe you want both the key and the value...

def pick(m):
    "returns a random (key, value) pair from dictionary m"
    return random.choice(m.items())

hope that helps,
Sean


"Yuval" <yuvalfeld at hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:6ca96053.0302051630.3ec20056 at posting.google.com...
> Is there a function that picks a random element from a dictionary? To
> my understanding the popitem() method does that, but it also removes
> it from the dictionary. Of course I can use popitem() and add it back
> directly, but is there any other way of doing so?
>
> Thanks.