How to iterate through two lists in parallel with one list randomized

Question

This thread explained how to iterate through two parallel lists.

When I apply that lesson to a shuffled list, however, I get the following error: "zip argument #2 does not support iteration." Why does a shuffled list not support iteration? How else can I randomize the order of answer choices?

import random

def answers():
    answerList = random.shuffle([answer1, answer2, answer3, correct])
    numberList = ["1: ", "2: ", "3: ", "4: "]
    for x,y in zip(numberList,answerList):
        print x,y 

prompt = "What is the average migrating speed of a laden swallow?"
answer1 = "Gas or electric?"
answer2 = "Metric or English?"
answer3 = "Paper or plastic?"
correct = "African or European?"

print prompt
answers()

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 24 '15 at 08:50

2

random.shuffle shuffles in place. Do as following:

answerList = [answer1, answer2, answer3, correct]
random.shuffle(answerList)

answered Apr 24 '15 at 08:50

pacholik

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thank you for your response. Can you explain why those two methods produce different results? – Kwhitejr Apr 24 '15 at 18:40
`random.shuffle` returns *None*. And *None* does not support iteration. – pacholik Apr 24 '15 at 20:01

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 25 '15 at 21:26

Thanks to pacholik for the solution.

import random

def answers():
    answerList = [answer1, answer2, answer3, correct]
    random.shuffle(answerList)
    numberList = ["1: ", "2: ", "3: ", "4: "]
    for x,y in zip(numberList,answerList):
        print x,y 

prompt = "What is the average migrating speed of a laden swallow?"
answer1 = "Gas or electric?"
answer2 = "Metric or English?"
answer3 = "Paper or plastic?"
correct = "African or European?"

print prompt
answers()

How to iterate through two lists in parallel with one list randomized

2 Answers2