Question

My Python code generates a random number between 0 and 35 and stores that number as ‘random’. I am looking to compare ‘random’ against several ranges of numbers to determine which of three groups it falls into and assign another value to ‘winning’ based on which group ‘random’ is in. The groups are: 0-16, 16-34, and 34-36. ‘winning’ always returns 2 though. Here’s what I’ve tried so far.

import random #start python random number generator
random = random.randrange(36) #calls a random number between 0-35 and stores value
print random #test

for random in range(0, 16):
   winning = 0
for random in range(16, 34):
   winning = 1
for random in range(34, 36):
   winning = 45
print winning #test

Thank you in advance for any help that you can give! This is my first time programming with Python.

Answer 1

You should use if instead of for. for is a loop keyword.

if random in range(0, 16):
    winning = 0

Actually this is not a great use of range since it will generate a full list of all numbers and then check each number to see if it equals random. It would be more efficient to do some simple comparisons:

if 0 <= random < 16:
    winning = 0

# The above is a shorthand syntax for this:
# if 0 <= random and random < 16