I have a list of names and using random.choice(), I am able to get a random element from the list. Now I am trying to figure out at what index that given element sits in the list. This is what I have so far:
import random x = ['Jess','Jack','Mary','Sophia','Karen','Addison','Joseph','Eric','Ilona','Jason'] y = random.choice(x) print(y) You can use list.index():
x.index(y) This will return the first index in the list where it finds a match. However, this will not return the correct index if you have duplicates in your list.
A better way to handle this, in the case you have duplicates would be to randomise the index instead of the value. As you will always store the correct index you're referencing and not the first occurance.
y = random.randint(0, len(x)) #3 x[y] #Sophia You can use randrange
import random x = ['Jess','Jack','Mary','Sophia','Karen','Addison','Joseph','Eric','Ilona','Jason'] i = random.randrange(len(x)) print(i, x[i]) Example output:
7 Eric
This can be done in 2 ways.
import random x = ['Jess','Jack','Mary','Sophia','Karen','Addison','Joseph','Eric','Ilona','Jason'] k = random.randrange(len(x)) # k is the random index print(x[k], k) # x[k] will be the random element Pick the random element using random.choice and then use list.index to find the index
value= random.choice(x) index= x.index(value) Note 1: This doesn't work well when duplicate elements are present in the list
Most preferred way would be Method 1
You can also use random.choice to get the index
index = random.choice(range(len(x))) value = x[index] But this is a bit slow compared to random.randange
You can give y = x.index(random.choice(x)) This will assign the index to y
indexonly returns the first occurrence in the list.