[Tutor] Filling an array - with a twist

[Alan Gauld]

On 11/11/2020 06:30, Phil wrote:

> I'd like to fill an 8 x 8 array (list of lists) with random numbers such 
> that no column or row repeats the same number more than twice in a sequence.
> 
> e.g.. [12344562] is OK but [12223456] is not wanted.

You might need to write it out longhand with a function that
tracks the previous 2 results. There was a recent thread
discussing ways to do this (One of Manprits I think?)


> To add to the complication I really need numbers between 0 and 6 which 
> random.sample() won't allow because, as the value error states, the 
> sample is larger than the population.

Depending on what you need it for you could try generating smaller
lists then concatenating them. So for 8 items generate 2 lists
of 4 using sample. In the general case create n=(N/6)+1 lists each
of length N/n. Or just slice the final list to length N.
But that may not meet your definition of random...

Much slower is the manual method:

Lst = []
while len(Lst) < N:
    item = randint(1,6)
    if item == Lst[-1] and item == Lst[-2]:
          continue
    else: Lst.append(item)

But that only addresses a single row.

Checking that columns don't repeat is a whole extra level
of complexity! You need a nested loop and check the current
index against the previous two rows at the same position.
I'd definitely hide that in a function...

def validate(item, row, index, theList)

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Alan G
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