Testing random

[Peter Otten]

Thomas 'PointedEars' Lahn wrote:

> Peter Otten wrote:
> 
>> Steven D'Aprano 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)
>>> 
>>> Putting aside the timing aspects, your frequency calculations are not
>>> done in a very Pythonic manner.
>> 
>> I would agree if the frequency table were sparse, i. e. many indices with
>> 
>> number_list[index] == 0
>> 
>> but that's not the case with on average 10000 hits per index.
> 
> A common misconception.

A pointless remark. Not counting the ears ;)