Probably simple syntax error

[John Machin]

On Jul 2, 2:40 pm, Dustin  MacDonald <dmacdonal... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone.
>
> This is my first time posting to this newsgroup, and although I
> maintain my netiquette I might've missed something specific to the
> newsgroup, so hopefully you can avoid flaming me if I have :) I
> apologize for the length of this post but I figure the more
> information the better.

The more relevant information the better. It would have helped had you
shown (a) the first use of weights_array (b) your import statements

>
> My problem is that I'm getting a syntax error in some Python code that
> looks quite simple. The original code was in Object Pascal as I'm a
> recent Delphi-turned-Python programmer.
>
> I took the code (which is only about 130 lines in OP) and 'translated'
> it the best I could into Python (ended up being one line shy of 80
> when I was done). I can't see any problems with the code but it's
> coming up with a bunch of errors, which I'm guessing are probably my
> assuming something is the same in Python as it is in Pascal, and being
> wrong.
>
> Anyway, here's the code I'm having trouble with (the same error comes
> up several times but this is the first part of the code it shows up
> in):

Others have pointed out that the likely source of your first problem
is using () instead of [] for list subscripting.

I'll move on to the next few ...

>
> [code]
> randomizing_counter = 0
> # Put the loop counter for the randomizing to zero.

Problem 2: excessive verbosity

> until_val = 36
> # Set the "until val" to 36. We'll compare them to make sure we're not
> at the end of our wordlist_both.
>
> while randomizing_counter < until_val:

Try this:

    weights_array = []
    assert len(wordlist_both) == 36 # ???
    for _unused in range(len(wordlist_both)):
          # calculate something
          weights_array.append(something)


>         big_randomized_int = RandRange(0,100)

Problem 3a:
You have an import statement like
    import random
in which case you would get a runtime error, and should have:
     .... = random.randrange(0, 100)
or Problem 3b:
You have an import statement like:
    from random import randrange as RandRange
which will not cause a runtime error, merely mass barfing among the
spectators :-)

>         # Make a random value and store it.
>         small_randomized_int = big_randomized_int / 100

Problem 5: putting comments after the code instead of on the same line
as the statement you think needs explanation (most don't) or before
it.

>         # Divide that random value and store it in a different variable.

Problem 6: big_randomized_int can only have values in 0, 1, ..., 98,
99. So small_randomized_int will have the value 0, always.

Perhaps you meant:
    small_randomised_float = big_randomized_int / 100.0

>         small_randomized_int = Round(small_randomized_int, 2)
>         # Round that value to 2 decimal places

Problem 7: even if you did intend big.... / 100.00, the above is
redundant. 1 / 100.0 is 0.01, 99 / 100.0 is 0.99 -- no rounding is
necessary.

Problem 8: it's round(), not Round()

>         **weights_array(randomizing_counter) = small_randomized_int
>         # Assign the first randomized value to our first word to be weighted.

First? It's done each time around the loop.

>         randomizing_counter = randomizing_counter + 1
>         # Up the counter and repeat.
> [/code]
>

So, here's the looping version:

    weights_array = []
    for _unused in range(len(wordlist_both)):
          weights_array.append(random.randrange(100) / 100.0)

and here's the obligatory one-liner, using a list comprehension:

    weights_array = [random.randrange(100) / 100.0 for _unused in
range(len(wordlist_both))]

and here's an example of it in use:

>>> import random
>>> wordlist_both = 10 * ['foo']
>>> weights_array = [random.randrange(100) / 100.0 for _unused in range(len(wordlist_both))]
>>> weights_array
[0.38, 0.12, 0.55000000000000004, 0.23999999999999999,
0.91000000000000003, 0.48999999999999999, 0.91000000000000003,
0.67000000000000004, 0.77000000000000002,
0.81999999999999995]
>>>

Problem 9: you were expecting "precise" values like 0.55 and 0.24.

Solution is to read this:
http://docs.python.org/tut/node16.html

HTH,
John