Python Selecting Random Item from A List

In this article you will learn about a function named choice()which is used to select random item from a listother sequence types in python. This function is provided by random module in python. Hence to work on choice() initially you need to import random module.

Method #1 : Using random.choice()

This is is the most common method to choose a random number from a list.

Example:

# using random.choice()
import random

# initializing list 
test_list = [1, 6, 9, 2, 10]

# using random.choice() to 
# get a random number 
random_num = random.choice(test_list)

# printing random number
print ("Random number is : " + str(random_num))

Output:

Method #2 : Using random.randrange()

In this method we can specify the range for lists as 0 to its length, and get the index, and then corresponding value.

Example:

# using random.randrange
import random  
# initializing list 
test_list = [1, 6, 9, 2, 10] 

# using random.randrange() to 
# get a random number 
rand_idx = random.randrange(len(test_list))
random_num = test_list[rand_idx]

# printing random number
print ("Random number is : " + str(random_num))

Output:

Method #3 : Using random.randint()

This is also used to make any number in a range. By using that number’s index we find the corresponding value.  It requires 2 mandatory arguments for range.

Example:

# using random.randint()
import random

# initializing list 
test_list=[1, 6, 9, 2, 10]


# using random.randint() to 
# get a random number 
rand_idx = random.randint(0, len(test_list)-1)
random_num = test_list[rand_idx]

# printing random number
print ("Random number is : " + str(random_num))

Output: