Testing random

[Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn]

Cecil Westerhof wrote:

> I wrote a very simple function to test random:
>     def test_random(length, multiplier = 10000):
>         number_list = length * [0]
>         for i in range(length * multiplier):
>             number_list[random.randint(0, length - 1)] += 1
>         minimum = min(number_list)
>         maximum = max(number_list)
>         return (minimum, maximum, minimum / maximum)

As there is no guarantee that every number will occur randomly, using a 
dictionary at first should be more efficient than a list:

def test_random (length, multiplier=10000):
    number_list = {}
    for i in range(length * multiplier):
        r = random.randint(0, length - 1)
        number_list[r] = number_list[r] + 1 if r in number_list else 1
    values = number_list.values()
    minimum = min(values)
    maximum = max(values)
    return (minimum, maximum, minimum / maximum)

[Тuple literals are going to be introduced with C# 7 ;-)]


Since Python uses indentation as syntax element, it is better not to indent 
Python code by default when posting in order to make it easier testable.  If 
necessary, code sections can be delimited in an unambiguous way that is 
syntactically correct by lines like

#------------------------------------------------------------------------

The line length then should not exceed 72 to 78 characters, for quoting.

Although the <HT> character can be used for indentation, 4 spaces appear to 
be a sensible, device-independent default (8 is too much for more complex 
snippets that need to fit within the conventional 80-characters-per-line 
limit).

-- 
PointedEars

Twitter: @PointedEars2
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