Keeping random name in Python

Question

I'm learning Python and have cobbled together a random sentence generator to practise. How do I keep the first randomly-chosen name for the subsequent sections?

I have this:

def random_name():
    line_num = 0
    selected_line = ''
    with open('names.txt') as f:
        while 1:
            line = f.readline()
            if not line: break
            line_num += 1
            if random.uniform(0, line_num) < 1:
            selected_line = line
    return selected_line.strip()

Repeated for verb and noun. Then I define the sentence:

def MakeSentence(): #makes sentence by combining name, verb, and noun

x = random_name() + " is " + random_verb() + " " + random_noun()
return x

print("Type Yes to continue.")
print("\n")
print("Enter 'Q' to quit.")
print("\n")
response = 'x' #generic response as to not cause problems

while (response != 'Q'): #case switch kills it all

response = input("Would you like to continue?\n")
if response == 'Q':
    break
elif response == 'Yes':
    print(MakeSentence())

response = input("Is " + random_name() + " correct?\n")
if response == 'Q':
    break
elif response == 'Yes':
    print(random_name() + " is correct.\n")

You need to know that many/most of us on SO will be unwilling to read through, let alone debug, this much code. You need to ask brief, specific programming questions that have definite answers. You should probably read over the help file. This is not said to discourage you in any way, just to tell you what is expected. Welcome to SO! — Bill Bell, Aug 27 '17 at 17:57
You keep calling `random_name` over and over. Can't you just call it once and store the result in a variable? — Carcigenicate, Aug 27 '17 at 18:06
Thank you both. I'll try to be more succinct in the future. Thanks, Carcigenicate, I suppose you are right :) — afilmforthefuture, Aug 27 '17 at 18:17
tip: don't use `while 1: ...` use `for line in f: ...` and that will terminate without you needing to break. — juanpa.arrivillaga, Aug 27 '17 at 19:03

srattigan · Accepted Answer · 2017-08-28T15:34:24.303

The MakeSentence(): finishes once it hits the return statement, so you have several print statements that execute after that seemingly repeated again?

You could have this return a list or tuple:

def MakeSentence(): #makes sentence by combining name, verb, and noun
    """
    (None)->List
    Returns a list with a random name, verb and noun
    """
    x = [random_name(), random_verb(), random_noun()]
    return x

You can make many of these, but for example, try this:

sample = MakeSentence()

And to print it in the format above:

print(sample[0] + " is " + sample[1] + " " + sample[2])

Hope this solves it for you!

How can I store the first random name, verb, and noun to be used in further statements?

After running, you can see what is happening in the interpreter: that the function returns a list with three strings inside, and you can use the bracket notation [0], [1] and [2] to access each of these as shown below. These three things are available for you until or unless you over-write them.

>>> sample = MakeSentence()
>>> print(sample)
['Sean', 'eating', 'apples']
>>> print(sample[0] + " is " + sample[1] + " " + sample[2])
Sean is eating apples

If I wanted to get many samples, I could do this:

many_samples = []  # make a list to store many lists
for users in range(3):  # to generate three samples: change to larger number if desired
    many_samples.append(MakeSentence())

An example of the nested list might be something like this (but this is rearranged to make it easier to read):

>>> print(many_samples)
[ 
  ['Sean', 'eating', 'apples'],
  ['Jane', 'drinking', 'oranges'],
  ['Jim', 'chopping', 'chairs']
]

# to print out these in a format as you had in the example:
for each_elem in many_samples:
    print(each_elem[0] + " is " + each_elem[1] + " " + each_elem[2])

so we are iterating through the list, and each element in the list is another list. In each sub-list, we take the first (a position 0), second and third (at position 2) elements and have them plugged into our string output.

Thank you. I've tried this but when I add [0] it ends up just printing the first letter of the name. What am I doing wrong? e.g. response = input("Is " + sample_name[0] + " correct?\n") gives: Is K correct? — afilmforthefuture, Aug 28 '17 at 11:56
My aim was to show "How can I store the first random name, verb, and noun to be used in further statements?" If you just call the function random_name() to generate a name, then only a single string is returned. Accessing a character in a string is similar to accessing an element in a list, so if you get the string "Mike" assigned to a variable called 'name' and print out name[0], you will indeed only get the first character. I can add another comment or more detail, or another example if you need it? I've already added some detail and comments with additional code above. :) — srattigan, Aug 28 '17 at 15:39
If the answer above meets your question, could you please select it as the accepted answer? Many thanks, Sean. — srattigan, Aug 29 '17 at 19:18
Thanks. The method above for creating the string works fine, and is easy to follow, but a more elegant method you might consider in a future revision is shown here: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5082452/python-string-formatting-vs-format best of luck with it! — srattigan, Aug 29 '17 at 20:38

Keeping random name in Python

1 Answers1