Guido van Rossum | 5fdeeea | 1994-01-02 01:22:07 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 1 | \section{Standard Module \sectcode{whrandom}} |
Guido van Rossum | 5fdeeea | 1994-01-02 01:22:07 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 2 | \stmodindex{whrandom} |
Guido van Rossum | 5fdeeea | 1994-01-02 01:22:07 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 3 | |
Guido van Rossum | 571391b | 1997-04-03 22:41:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 4 | This module implements a Wichmann-Hill pseudo-random number generator |
| 5 | class that is also named \code{whrandom}. Instances of the |
| 6 | \code{whrandom} class have the following methods: |
Guido van Rossum | 5fdeeea | 1994-01-02 01:22:07 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 7 | \renewcommand{\indexsubitem}{(in module whrandom)} |
Guido van Rossum | 571391b | 1997-04-03 22:41:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 8 | |
| 9 | \begin{funcdesc}{choice}{seq} |
| 10 | Chooses a random element from the non-empty sequence \var{seq} and returns it. |
| 11 | \end{funcdesc} |
| 12 | |
| 13 | \begin{funcdesc}{randint}{a\, b} |
| 14 | Returns a random integer \var{N} such that \code{\var{a}<=\var{N}<=\var{b}}. |
| 15 | \end{funcdesc} |
| 16 | |
Guido van Rossum | 5fdeeea | 1994-01-02 01:22:07 +0000 | [diff] [blame] | 17 | \begin{funcdesc}{random}{} |
| 18 | Returns the next random floating point number in the range [0.0 ... 1.0). |
| 19 | \end{funcdesc} |
| 20 | |
| 21 | \begin{funcdesc}{seed}{x\, y\, z} |
| 22 | Initializes the random number generator from the integers |
| 23 | \var{x}, |
| 24 | \var{y} |
| 25 | and |
| 26 | \var{z}. |
| 27 | When the module is first imported, the random number is initialized |
| 28 | using values derived from the current time. |
| 29 | \end{funcdesc} |
Guido van Rossum | 571391b | 1997-04-03 22:41:49 +0000 | [diff] [blame^] | 30 | |
| 31 | \begin{funcdesc}{uniform}{a\, b} |
| 32 | Returns a random real number \var{N} such that \code{\var{a}<=\var{N}<\var{b}}. |
| 33 | \end{funcdesc} |
| 34 | |
| 35 | When imported, the \code{whrandom} module also creates an instance of |
| 36 | the \code{whrandom} class, and makes the methods of that instance |
| 37 | available at the module level. Therefore one can write either |
| 38 | \code{N = whrandom.random()} or: |
| 39 | \begin{verbatim} |
| 40 | generator = whrandom.whrandom() |
| 41 | N = generator.random() |
| 42 | \end{verbatim} |