How to get random item and random value from dictionary

Question

I'm trying to get a random value from one of the ice-cream flavors. I've tried using random, pop items, but they all print out the entire line. While I'm trying to just get one of the values (cone flavors) and a flavor.

dict = {
    "vanilla": ["vanilla-cone", "chocolate-cone","cookie-dough-cone", "mint-cone", "rainbow-cone"],
    "Chocolate": ["vanilla-cone", "chocolate-cone","cookie-dough-cone", "mint-cone", "rainbow-cone"],
    "Cookie-dough": ["vanilla-cone", "chocolate-cone","cookie-dough-cone", "mint-cone", "rainbow-cone"],
    "Mint-Chocolate": ["vanilla-cone", "chocolate-cone","cookie-dough-cone", "mint-cone", "rainbow-cone"],
    "Rainbow": ["vanilla-cone", "chocolate-cone","cookie-dough-cone", "mint-cone", "rainbow-cone"]
}

print (dict.popitem())
or 
print(random.choice(list(dict.items())))

Expected Output:
{"Mint-Chocolate": "vanilla-cone"}

What exactly do you expect to get as output? you have a dict with lists as values. Do you want a random list, or a random item from a random list? — DeepSpace, Jan 09 '21 at 18:29
Does this answer your question? [How to get a random value from dictionary in python](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4859292/how-to-get-a-random-value-from-dictionary-in-python) — HedgeHog, Jan 09 '21 at 18:29

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 09 '21 at 18:40

1

Try the following code after your code:

flavor = random.choice(list(dict))
seq = ["vanilla-cone", "chocolate-cone","cookie-dough-cone", 
"mint-cone", "rainbow-cone"]
cone = random.choice(seq)
print(flavor, ":", cone)

answered Jan 09 '21 at 18:40

Shri B

28
3

jonathan · Answer 2 · 2021-01-09T18:45:08.043

0

this is happening because dict.items return pairs of key value tuple, if you want spesific flavor you need to choose a key and than choose again from your list of flavor for spesific flavor try this code

print(random.choice(dict[random.choice(list(dict.keys()))]))

also you can choose directly from the values like this

print(random.choice(random.choice(list(dict.values()))))

edited Jan 09 '21 at 18:45

answered Jan 09 '21 at 18:36

jonathan

269
1
7

Gotcha and is it possible to print out the flavor as well as the cone? – Anlact Huynh Jan 10 '21 at 16:07
yes, you need to choose the flavor and store it in variable, than ramdom a cone and after those 2 steps print them together. – jonathan Jan 10 '21 at 17:36

azro · Answer 3 · 2021-01-10T16:10:44.297

0

Do it in 2 steps, first get a key, then a value. Also don't name it dict, that the dictionnary constructor keyword

import random

# pick a random key
rand_key = random.choice(list(values))
# pick a random value between the values given by the key
rand_value = random.choice(values[rand_key])

print(rand_key, rand_value)

Here some results after some run

Rainbow cookie-dough-cone
Mint-Chocolate chocolate-cone
Cookie-dough chocolate-cone

To get a dict output,

use dict literal instanciation

rand_key = random.choice(list(values))
result = {rand_key: random.choice(values[rand_key])}
 # {'Chocolate': 'chocolate-cone'}

or a dict-comprehension

result = {k: random.sample(values[k], 1)[0] for k in random.sample(list(values), 1)}

edited Jan 10 '21 at 16:10

answered Jan 09 '21 at 18:38

azro

53,056
7
34
70

Is there a possibility to use the dict constructor keyword directly? Like the list keyword – Anlact Huynh Jan 10 '21 at 16:07
@AnlactHuynh Why so ? To get your expected output do `result = {rand_key: random.choice(values[rand_key])}` – azro Jan 10 '21 at 16:10
Nothing particular, I felt that it can be used faster? Also, the string of code you just sent returned ```result = {rand_key: random.choice(values[rand_key])} NameError: name 'rand_key' is not defined``` – Anlact Huynh Jan 10 '21 at 17:24
@AnlactHuynh `rand_key` was defined in the previous code. You can think about accepting the answer if it satisfies you ;) – azro Jan 10 '21 at 18:23

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 09 '21 at 18:40

I think your use of dictionary is wrong, because if I understand correctly you want to create a random ice cream with random flavor and random cone.

This is an example of this scenario using just a list and random.choice two times.

import random

flavors = ['vanilla', 'chocolate', 'cookie-dough', 'mint-chocolate', 'rainbow']

cone = random.choice(flavors) + '-cone'
icecream = random.choice(flavors)

How to get random item and random value from dictionary

4 Answers4