How do I randomly select between two strings with the `or` operator in python?

Question

I have problems with the or operator. I'm just starting out with Python. I should print in the textbox either A or B. Can't. Problem is, only A. B does not print. How can I do? Thank you

A = f"{name} {''.join(word2)} {inhabitants} inhabitants on an area of {surface}"
B = f"Che sale a"
        
text.insert(tk.END, A or B)

Are you wanting randomness? It will only print `B` is `A` is an empty string — Samathingamajig, Jun 17 '21 at 04:55
Does this answer your question? [How to randomly select an item from a list?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/306400/how-to-randomly-select-an-item-from-a-list) — Samathingamajig, Jun 17 '21 at 04:58
@Samathingamajig I think so. Because the link also talks about secure_random = random.SystemRandom()? What does it mean? — Giovanni Russo, Jun 17 '21 at 05:06
It seems to be a better random number generator, but that's not needed for something as simple as this (probably is slower & more system demanding). Learn more here: https://docs.python.org/3.6/library/secrets.html#module-secrets — Samathingamajig, Jun 17 '21 at 05:09

Samathingamajig · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-17T05:12:36.830

You seem to want to randomly select to display A or B. You can do this with the pre-installed random module. random.choice takes in a list and randomly returns one element from that list, which is the desired behavior.

import random

A = f"{name} {''.join(word2)} {inhabitants} inhabitants on an area of {surface}"
B = f"Che sale a"
        
text.insert(tk.END, random.choice([A, B]))

If you would like to use a more secure version of random.choice, you can do so with the pre-installed secrets module

import secrets

A = f"{name} {''.join(word2)} {inhabitants} inhabitants on an area of {surface}"
B = f"Che sale a"
        
text.insert(tk.END, secrets.choice([A, B]))

@Samanthingamajic perfect. thank you. I didn't know about the random module — Giovanni Russo, Jun 17 '21 at 05:00

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 17 '21 at 04:56

1

You need to create an if statement to decide in what condition A or B should be printed. Or is actually used with booleans. If either of the booleans are true, or will return true.

answered Jun 17 '21 at 04:56

Shonsave

78
8

1

Not exactly. `or`, the python version of `||` actually returns the first truthy value. Look here for an example: https://wandbox.org/permlink/zqNl4LfeK8KeS4cf (source code for future readers: `print("" or "Hello, World"); print(5 or 6); print(0 or 6); print(False or None); print(None or "Hello")`) – Samathingamajig Jun 17 '21 at 05:05
1

Wow, I didn't know that it could also be used like that.. Thanks for the info! – Shonsave Jun 17 '21 at 06:18

How do I randomly select between two strings with the `or` operator in python?

2 Answers2