PYTHON RANDOM MODULE METHODS

1. seed()
This initializes a random number generator. To generate a
new random sequence, a seed must be set depending on the
current system time. random.seed() sets the seed for random
number generation.

2. getstate()
This returns an object containing the current state of the
generator. To restore the state, pass the object to setstate().

3. setstate(state_obj)
This restores the state of the generator at the point when
getstate() was called, by passing the state object.

4. getrandbits(k)
This returns a Python integer with k random bits. This is
useful for methods like randrange() to handle arbitrary large
ranges for random number generation.

>>> import random

import random
random.seed(1)
# Get the state of the generator
state = random.getstate()
print('Generating a random sequence of 3 integers...')
for i in range(3):
print(random.randint(1, 1000))
# Restore the state to a point before the sequence was
generated
random.setstate(state)
print('Generating the same identical sequence of 3
integers...')
for i in range(3):
print(random.randint(1, 1000))
Possible Output:
>>>>Generating a random sequence of 3 integers...
138
583
868
Generating the same identical sequence of 3 integers...
138
583
868
Generate Random Integers
The random module provides some special methods for
generating random integers.
1. randrange(start, stop, step)
Returns a randomly selected integer from range(start, stop,
step). This raises a ValueError if start > stop.
2. randint(a, b)
Returns a random integer between a and b (both inclusive).
This also raises a ValueError if a > b.
Here is an example that illustrates both the above functions.
import random
i = 100
j = 20e7
# Generates a random number between i and j
a = random.randrange(i, j)
try:
b = random.randrange(j, i)
except ValueError:
 print('ValueError on randrange() since start > stop')
c = random.randint(100, 200)
try:
d = random.randint(200, 100)
except ValueError:
print('ValueError on randint() since 200 > 100')
print('i =', i, ' and j =', j)
print('randrange() generated number:', a)
print('randint() generated number:', c)
Possible Output
ValueError on randrange() since start > stop
ValueError on randint() since 200 > 100
i = 100 and j = 200000000.0
randrange() generated number: 143577043
randint() generated number: 170
Generating Random floating point numbers
Similar to generating integers, there are functions that
generate random floating point sequences.
random.random() -> Returns the next random floating point
number between [0.0 to 1.0)
random.uniform(a, b) -> Returns a random floating point N
such that a <= N <= b if a <= b and b <= N <= a if b < a.
random.expovariate(lambda) -> Returns a number
corresponding to an exponential distribution.
random.gauss(mu, sigma) -> Returns a number
corresponding to a gaussian distribution.
There are similar functions for other distributions, such as
Normal Distribution, Gamma Distribution, etc.
An example of generating these floating-point numbers is
given below:
import random
print('Random number from 0 to 1 :', random.random())
print('Uniform Distribution between [1,5] :',
random.uniform(1, 5))
print('Gaussian Distribution with mean = 0 and standard
deviation = 1 :', random.gauss(0, 1))
print('Exponential Distribution with lambda = 0.1 :',
random.expovariate(0.1))
print('Normal Distribution with mean = 1 and standard
deviation = 2:', random.normalvariate(1, 5))
Possible Output
Random number from 0 to 1 : 0.44663645835100585
Uniform Distribution between [1,5] : 3.65657099941547
Gaussian Distribution with mean = 0 and standard deviation =
1 : -2.271813609629832
Exponential Distribution with lambda = 0.1 :
12.64275539117617
Normal Distribution with mean = 1 and standard deviation =
2 : 4.259037195111757
Random Sequences using the random module
Similar to integers and floating-point sequences, a generic
sequence can be a collection of items, like a List / Tuple. The
random module provides useful functions which can
introduce a state of randomness to sequences.
1. random.shuffle(x)
This is used to shuffle the sequence in place. A sequence can
be any list/tuple containing elements.
Example Code to illustrate shuffling:
import random
sequence = [random.randint(0, i) for i in range(10)]
print('Before shuffling', sequence)
random.shuffle(sequence)
print('After shuffling', sequence)
Possible Output:
Before shuffling [0, 0, 2, 0, 4, 5, 5, 0, 1, 9]
After shuffling [5, 0, 9, 1, 5, 0, 4, 2, 0, 0]
2. random.choice(seq)
This is a widely used function in practice, wherein you would
want to randomly pick up an item from a List/sequence.
import random
a = ['one', 'eleven', 'twelve', 'five', 'six', 'ten']
print(a)
for i in range(5):
print(random.choice(a))
Possible Output
['one', 'eleven', 'twelve', 'five', 'six', 'ten']
ten
eleven
six
twelve
twelve
3. random.sample(population, k)
Returns a random sample from a sequence of length k.
import random
a = ['one', 'eleven', 'twelve', 'five', 'six', 'ten']
print(a)
for i in range(3):
b = random.sample(a, 2)
 print('random sample:', b)
Possible Output
['one', 'eleven', 'twelve', 'five', 'six', 'ten']
random sample: ['five', 'twelve']
random sample: ['ten', 'six']
random sample: ['eleven', 'one']
Random Seed
Since pseudorandom generation is based on the previous
number, we usually use the system time to make sure that
the program gives a new output every time we run it. We
thus make use of seeds.
Python provides us with random.seed() with which we can
set a seed to get an initial value. This seed value determines
the output of a random number generator, so if it remains
the same, the output also remains the same.
import random
random.seed(1)
print('Generating a random sequence of 4 numbers...')
print([random.randint(1, 100) for i in range(5)])
# Reset the seed to 1 again
random.seed(1)
# We now get the same sequence
print([random.randint(1, 100) for i in range(5)])
Possible Output
Generating a random sequence of 4 numbers...
[18, 73, 98, 9, 33]
[18, 73, 98, 9, 33]
This ensures that we need to be mindful of our seed when
dealing with pseudorandom sequences , since the sequence
may repeat if the seed is unchanged.