[Tutor] powerball

[Marilyn Davis]

On Wed, June 11, 2008 9:42 pm, max baseman wrote:

> hello and thank you everyone for your help. I apologize for my ignorance
> when it came to knowledge of what the powerball is  it is not as wide
> spread as i had thought it was
>
> the powerball is a form of lottery their are 5 numbers between 1 and 55,
> and then their is the powerball between 1 and 42 players win different
> amounts of money depending on how many numbers they had right the program
> i wrote uses the number 146107962  as the amount of tickets in play i
> found this number on the powerball stat as the probability of getting
> jackpot 1 / 146107962 included is the finished and working script if
> anyone would like to use or play with it.
>

Hi Max,

The program looks great.  You're getting real pythonic.  Since you posted
it, I'll add some comments to help you spiff it up and make it faster.

Again, I'll use the > for comments:

from random import randrange # for creating random numbers
wins=0 # to see how many people would win
win=[] # the winning numbers go here
count=0

> You don't need count=0.  Python sets the whole thing up for you
> with just that "for":
for count in range(5): # powerball uses 5 numbers
    win.append(randrange(55)+1)
powerball=randrange(42)+1
count=0
while count != 146107962: # point of information useing for count in
range(146107962) will overlaoad with this large a number

> Then you might like xrange(big_number). It generates the numbers,
> one at a time.

    numbers=[] # guesses
    count2=0
    for count2 in range(5):
        number=randrange(55)+1

>  With randrange, you can get duplicates.  You can get
> [23, 2, 14, 23, 2] which I'm guessing can't
>  happen in a real powerball game.  (I don't know powerball either.)
>  You might like the sample() function in the random library.

        if number in win: # if the number is in the winning numbers continue
            numbers.append(number)
        else:
            print "lose" # else quite while ahead
            break
>           There you went to the next player. It's a good place
>           for a comment.
        numbers.sort()
> You don't seem to need those numbers sorted.
        win.sort()
> Since win is not changing, you might want to sort it only once,
> back when you made that list.

        ball=randrange(42)+1 #picks the powerball
        if ball == powerball:
            print "win"
            wins=wins+1
> else?  it's quiet.

    count=count+1
print
print wins,"winners with", win, powerball

> What happens wrong?  I didn't run it?  Does it just fall quiet for a
> while?  You might try putting in some extra print statements to see
> what is exactly happening.

> Are you a student?  What grade?

>
>
> seeing as i have left the python mailing list in the past any comments or
> ideas would be appreciated if sent to this email - thank you
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