Random dont chose 8 character words

Question

I used random module in my ptoject. Im not a programmer, but i need to do a script which will create a randomized database from another database. In my case, I need the script to select random words lined up in a column from the "wordlist.txt" file, and then also absolutely randomly line them up in a line of 12 words, write them to another file (for example, "result1.txt") and switch to a new line, and so many times, ad infinitum. Everything seems to be working, but I noticed that it adds absolutely all words, except for words consisting of 8 letters. And also i want to increase the perfomance of this code.

Code:

import random

# Initial wordlists
fours = []
fives = []
sixes = []
sevens = []
eights = []

# Fill above lists with corresponding word lengths from wordlist
with open('wordlist.txt') as wordlist:
    for line in wordlist:
        if len(line) == 4:
            fours.append(line.strip())
        elif len(line) == 5:
            fives.append(line.strip())
        elif len(line) == 6:
            sixes.append(line.strip())
        elif len(line) == 7:
            sevens.append(line.strip())
        elif len(line) == 8:
            eights.append(line.strip())

# Create new lists and fill with number of items in fours
fivesLess = []
sixesLess = []
sevensLess = []
eightsLess = []

fivesCounter = 0
while fivesCounter < len(fours):
    randFive = random.choice(fives)
    if randFive not in fivesLess:
        fivesLess.append(randFive)
        fivesCounter += 1

sixesCounter = 0
while sixesCounter < len(fours):
    randSix = random.choice(sixes)
    if randSix not in sixesLess:
        sixesLess.append(randSix)
        sixesCounter += 1

sevensCounter = 0
while sevensCounter < len(fours):
    randSeven = random.choice(sevens)
    if randSeven not in sevensLess:
        sevensLess.append(randSeven)
        sevensCounter += 1

eightsCounter = 0
while eightsCounter < len(fours):
    randEight = random.choice(eights)
    if randEight not in eightsLess:
        eightsLess.append(randEight)
        eightsCounter += 1

choices = [eights]

# Generate n number of seeds and print
seedCounter = 0
while seedCounter < 1:
    seed = []
    while len(seed) < 12:
        wordLengthChoice = random.choice(choices)
        wordChoice = random.choice(wordLengthChoice)
        seed.append(wordChoice)
    seedCounter += 0
    with open("result1.txt", "a") as f:
        f.write(' '.join(seed))
        f.write('\n')

What you need to do is unclear to me. Can you try to be more precise ? Maybe give an example of input and expected output, how it should behave — Mateo Vial, Feb 10 '23 at 14:52
`len(line)` is going to include the newline character at the end of the line; in other words, everything you're appending to `eights` is going to be a 7-letter word. You need to apply `.strip()` *before* checking the length. — jasonharper, Feb 10 '23 at 14:56
Welcome to Stack Overflow. It seems like your goal is to fill the `eightsLess` list, with as many, *distinct* 8-letter words, as there are in the list of 4-letter words? In your own words, **why should this be possible**? Consider: what would happen if there aren't as many 8-letter words in the dictionary as there are 4-letter words? — Karl Knechtel, Feb 10 '23 at 15:17
Suppose for example the file contains only these words: `duck`, `pony`, `apple`, `intent`, `compute`, `aardvark`. What should the resulting lists look like, and why? — Karl Knechtel, Feb 10 '23 at 15:18

score -1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 10 '23 at 14:56

If I'm understanding you correctly, something like

import random
from collections import defaultdict

words_by_length = defaultdict(list)


def generate_line(*, n_words, word_length):
    return ' '.join(random.choice(words_by_length[word_length]) for _ in range(n_words))


with open('wordlist.txt') as wordlist:
    for line in wordlist:
        line = line.strip()
        words_by_length[len(line)].append(line)



for x in range(10):
    print(generate_line(n_words=12, word_length=8))

should be enough – you can just use a single dict-of-lists to contain all of the words, no need for separate variables. (Also, I suspect your original bug stemmed from not strip()ing the line before looking at its length.)

If you need a single line to never repeat a word, you'll want

def generate_line(*, n_words, word_length):
    return ' '.join(random.sample(words_by_length[word_length], n_words))

instead.

AKX, its seems like what im searching, but i need to output the result in other txt file, thanks! — Prism Ash, Feb 10 '23 at 15:05
Sure, but you know how to do that already, you had it in your own code. You can also just use `python foo.py > other.txt` to redirect any output... — AKX, Feb 10 '23 at 15:08

Random dont chose 8 character words

1 Answers1