Pulling random item from user input list in python

Question

sup = ['eyes', 'nose', 'mouth'] 
car = ['4wd', 'hatch', 'coupe']
tan = ['dark', 'light', 'pale']

objects = ['sup', 'car', 'tan']

import random

print 'choose 2 objects from the following list separated by commas:'
print 'sup, car, tan'

chorol []
chorol.extend (objects[:2])

from random import choice
print choice (1)

from random import choice
print choice (2)

I'm trying to get a user to pick 2 lists from a set of 3 and then print 1 random item from each of the 2 lists the user has chosen. I've only started learning to code very recently, so the mistake is probably very basic.

mgilson · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-30 04:23:30Z

2

You're better off with a dictionary here:

import random
d = dict(sup = ['eyes', 'nose', 'mouth'],
         car = ['4wd', 'hatch', 'coupe'],
         tan = ['dark', 'light', 'pale'])

items = raw_input("pick 2 (separated by comma):" + ','.join(d)+' > ')
#The next line of code could be
#item1,item2 = [x.strip() for x in items.split(',')] 
#if you want to do some validation
item1, item2 = items.split(',')  

print 'picked:', random.choice(d[item1])
print 'picked:', random.choice(d[item2])

edited Jan 30, 2013 at 4:23

answered Jan 30, 2013 at 4:00

mgilson

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4 Comments

user2023827 Over a year ago

I'm getting a syntax error on my line 13 item1, item2, item3, item4, item5 = items.split(',') Is that incorrect?

mgilson Over a year ago

You mean the line: chorol []? I think it probably should be chorol = [] ... But I think your code has more problems than just that ...

user2023827 Over a year ago

Haha, you're probably right with the last part there! I may have got a bit ahead of myself but learning through failure is kind of fun. I changed my chorol to items to match what you posted so I don't think it's that. Probably time to go do some reading on dictionaries, thanks for your help.

mgilson Over a year ago

@user2023827 -- no problem. As a side note, the dict I have above is more often written as : d = {'sup':['eyes','nose','mouth'],'car':[...], 'tan':[...]}. I'm not sure why I wrote it the way I did ... Just wanted a change I guess :)

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