Python random.choice always selects first value

Question

AUDIO_FILES = [
    os.path.join(settings.AUDIO_FILES_DIR, "1.mp3"),
    os.path.join(settings.AUDIO_FILES_DIR, "2.mp3"),
    os.path.join(settings.AUDIO_FILES_DIR, "3.mp3"),
    os.path.join(settings.AUDIO_FILES_DIR, "4.mp3"),
    os.path.join(settings.AUDIO_FILES_DIR, "5.mp3"),
]

def _get_audio_clip():
    audio_file = random.choice(AUDIO_FILES)
    audio_clip = AudioFileClip(audio_file)
    return audio_clip

_get_audio_clip()

Can anyone point out why random.choice always returns first value of the list in this piece of code?

Nope, it doesn't, how many tries did you do ? Print out the result from `choice` you'll see ;) — azro, Mar 18 '20 at 17:04
It does time after time after time. There is something wrong I must be doing butot selects first value every single time. — NVM, Mar 18 '20 at 17:07
What do you mean does not even make any choice? random.choice is choosing one file. — NVM, Mar 18 '20 at 17:13
Have you used import random? You need this for random.choice() to work — Thomas, Mar 18 '20 at 17:24
Yes I've imported random. This is part of a 4000 line file Whole of which I cannot post here. — NVM, Mar 18 '20 at 17:30

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 18 '20 at 19:46

This answered my question. Quoting the answer:

What happens is that on Unix every worker process inherits the same state of the random number generator from the parent process. This is why they generate identical pseudo-random sequences.

Using random.seed() in the worker process solved the problem.

Python random.choice always selects first value

1 Answers1