Picking a Random Word from a list in python?

Question

In Python 3, how would I print a random word from a list of words?

**See instead:** https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18834636/random-word-generator-python — dreftymac, Aug 13 '21 at 18:45

score 34 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 09 '10 at 01:52

34

Use the random.choice() function:

>>> import random
>>> a = ["Stack", "Overflow", "rocks"]
>>> print(random.choice(a))
rocks

answered Dec 09 '10 at 01:52

Greg Hewgill

1

Thank you Greg, I knew it was simple, but I forgot how to do it. – Noah R Dec 09 '10 at 01:53
Noah, accept his answer if it answered your question best. – Corey Goldberg Dec 09 '10 at 04:01

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 09 '10 at 01:53

6

>>> import random
>>> random.choice("hello world".split())
'hello'
>>> random.choice("hello world".split())
'world'

answered Dec 09 '10 at 01:53

jtdubs

3

Did you actually run it until you got this output? Or did you fake it =P – Falmarri Dec 09 '10 at 01:54
@Falmarri: About a 50/50 chance, wouldn't you say? – martineau Dec 09 '10 at 01:59
You have a 25% chance of getting this output. – Ned Batchelder Dec 09 '10 at 02:04
Are we supposed to test the code we post on here? :) – John La Rooy Dec 09 '10 at 02:33
The fact that the first word was "hello" doesn't affect the 50/50 chances of second one being "world" does it? – martineau Dec 09 '10 at 03:16
3

No, @martineau, it doesn't. It was a 50% chance of the first one being 'hello', and a 50% chance of the second being 'world'. .5 * .5 = .25. – JasonFruit Dec 12 '10 at 18:13
OK, I get it...but I'm not sure what the big deal is about the output happening to be "hello" followed by "world" since the probability of that is exactly the same as it being any other combination (even if it's less than 50/50). – martineau Dec 12 '10 at 20:57

score 3 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 30 '17 at 14:23

3

str='book pen paper pencil'
x=str.split()
print(x)
import random
print(random.choice(x))

edited Jun 30 '17 at 14:23

legoscia

answered Jun 30 '17 at 14:06

Ravikiran D

score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 05 '17 at 05:19

3

str='book pen paper pencil'
x=str.split()
print(x)
y=len(x)
import random
z=random.randrange(-1,y)
print(x[z])

edited Jul 05 '17 at 05:19

AChampion

answered Jul 04 '17 at 15:00

Ravikiran D

1

Simply: `random.choice(x)` – phd Jul 04 '17 at 21:36
its a logic without using any random sequences. any way@AChampion thank you for editing my code. – Ravikiran D Jul 06 '17 at 16:45

4 Answers4