Random License Number

[Christa Voth]

Forintegers, there is uniform selection from a range. For sequences, there isuniform selection of a random element, a function to generate a randompermutation of a list in-place, and a function for random sampling withoutreplacement.

On the real line, there are functions to compute uniform, normal (Gaussian),lognormal, negative exponential, gamma, and beta distributions. For generatingdistributions of angles, the von Mises distribution is available.

If a is omitted or None, the current system time is used. Ifrandomness sources are provided by the operating system, they are usedinstead of the system time (see the os.urandom() function for detailson availability).

Returns a non-negative Python integer with k random bits. This methodis supplied with the Mersenne Twister generator and some other generatorsmay also provide it as an optional part of the API. When available,getrandbits() enables randrange() to handle arbitrarily largeranges.

If a weights sequence is specified, selections are made according to therelative weights. Alternatively, if a cum_weights sequence is given, theselections are made according to the cumulative weights (perhaps computedusing itertools.accumulate()). For example, the relative weights[10, 5, 30, 5] are equivalent to the cumulative weights[10, 15, 45, 50]. Internally, the relative weights are converted tocumulative weights before making selections, so supplying the cumulativeweights saves work.

If neither weights nor cum_weights are specified, selections are madewith equal probability. If a weights sequence is supplied, it must bethe same length as the population sequence. It is a TypeErrorto specify both weights and cum_weights.

The weights or cum_weights can use any numeric type that interoperateswith the float values returned by random() (that includesintegers, floats, and fractions but excludes decimals). Weights are assumedto be non-negative and finite. A ValueError is raised if allweights are zero.

For a given seed, the choices() function with equal weightingtypically produces a different sequence than repeated calls tochoice(). The algorithm used by choices() uses floating-pointarithmetic for internal consistency and speed. The algorithm usedby choice() defaults to integer arithmetic with repeated selectionsto avoid small biases from round-off error.

Note that even for small len(x), the total number of permutations of xcan quickly grow larger than the period of most random number generators.This implies that most permutations of a long sequence can never begenerated. For example, a sequence of length 2080 is the largest thatcan fit within the period of the Mersenne Twister random number generator.

Returns a new list containing elements from the population while leaving theoriginal population unchanged. The resulting list is in selection order so thatall sub-slices will also be valid random samples. This allows raffle winners(the sample) to be partitioned into grand prize and second place winners (thesubslices).

Multithreading note: When two threads call this functionsimultaneously, it is possible that they will receive thesame return value. This can be avoided in three ways.1) Have each thread use a different instance of the randomnumber generator. 2) Put locks around all calls. 3) Use theslower, but thread-safe normalvariate() function instead.

mu is the mean angle, expressed in radians between 0 and 2*pi, and kappais the concentration parameter, which must be greater than or equal to zero. Ifkappa is equal to zero, this distribution reduces to a uniform random angleover the range 0 to 2*pi.

Class that uses the os.urandom() function for generating random numbersfrom sources provided by the operating system. Not available on all systems.Does not rely on software state, and sequences are not reproducible. Accordingly,the seed() method has no effect and is ignored.The getstate() and setstate() methods raiseNotImplementedError if called.

Sometimes it is useful to be able to reproduce the sequences given by apseudo-random number generator. By reusing a seed value, the same sequence should bereproducible from run to run as long as multiple threads are not running.

Economics Simulationa simulation of a marketplace byPeter Norvig that shows effectiveuse of many of the tools and distributions provided by this module(gauss, uniform, sample, betavariate, choice, triangular, and randrange).

Various applications of randomness have led to the development of different methods for generating random data. Some of these have existed since ancient times, including well-known examples like the rolling of dice, coin flipping, the shuffling of playing cards, the use of yarrow stalks (for divination) in the I Ching, as well as countless other techniques. Because of the mechanical nature of these techniques, generating large quantities of sufficiently random numbers (important in statistics) required much work and time. Thus, results would sometimes be collected and distributed as random number tables.

Several computational methods for pseudorandom number generation exist. All fall short of the goal of true randomness, although they may meet, with varying success, some of the statistical tests for randomness intended to measure how unpredictable their results are (that is, to what degree their patterns are discernible). This generally makes them unusable for applications such as cryptography. However, carefully designed cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generators (CSPRNGS) also exist, with special features specifically designed for use in cryptography.

Random number generators have applications in gambling, statistical sampling, computer simulation, cryptography, completely randomized design, and other areas where producing an unpredictable result is desirable. Generally, in applications having unpredictability as the paramount feature, such as in security applications, hardware generators are generally preferred over pseudorandom algorithms, where feasible.

The generation of pseudorandom numbers is an important and common task in computer programming. While cryptography and certain numerical algorithms require a very high degree of apparent randomness, many other operations only need a modest amount of unpredictability. Some simple examples might be presenting a user with a "random quote of the day", or determining which way a computer-controlled adversary might move in a computer game. Weaker forms of randomness are used in hash algorithms and in creating amortized searching and sorting algorithms.

Some applications that appear at first sight to be suitable for randomization are in fact not quite so simple. For instance, a system that "randomly" selects music tracks for a background music system must only appear random, and may even have ways to control the selection of music: a truly random system would have no restriction on the same item appearing two or three times in succession.

There are two principal methods used to generate random numbers. The first method measures some physical phenomenon that is expected to be random and then compensates for possible biases in the measurement process. Example sources include measuring atmospheric noise, thermal noise, and other external electromagnetic and quantum phenomena. For example, cosmic background radiation or radioactive decay as measured over short timescales represent sources of natural entropy (as a measure of unpredictability or surprise of the number generation process).

The second method uses computational algorithms that can produce long sequences of apparently random results, which are in fact completely determined by a shorter initial value, known as a seed value or key. As a result, the entire seemingly random sequence can be reproduced if the seed value is known. This type of random number generator is often called a pseudorandom number generator. This type of generator typically does not rely on sources of naturally occurring entropy, though it may be periodically seeded by natural sources. This generator type is non-blocking, so they are not rate-limited by an external event, making large bulk reads a possibility.

Some systems take a hybrid approach, providing randomness harvested from natural sources when available, and falling back to periodically re-seeded software-based cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generators (CSPRNGs). The fallback occurs when the desired read rate of randomness exceeds the ability of the natural harvesting approach to keep up with the demand. This approach avoids the rate-limited blocking behavior of random number generators based on slower and purely environmental methods.

The earliest methods for generating random numbers, such as dice, coin flipping and roulette wheels, are still used today, mainly in games and gambling as they tend to be too slow for most applications in statistics and cryptography.

A physical random number generator can be based on an essentially random atomic or subatomic physical phenomenon whose unpredictability can be traced to the laws of quantum mechanics.[4][5] Sources of entropy include radioactive decay, thermal noise, shot noise, avalanche noise in Zener diodes, clock drift, the timing of actual movements of a hard disk read-write head, and radio noise. However, physical phenomena and tools used to measure them generally feature asymmetries and systematic biases that make their outcomes not uniformly random. A randomness extractor, such as a cryptographic hash function, can be used to approach a uniform distribution of bits from a non-uniformly random source, though at a lower bit rate.

The appearance of wideband photonic entropy sources, such as optical chaos and amplified spontaneous emission noise, greatly aid the development of the physical random number generator. Among them, optical chaos[6][7] has a high potential to physically produce high-speed random numbers due to its high bandwidth and large amplitude. A prototype of a high-speed, real-time physical random bit generator based on a chaotic laser was built in 2013.[8]

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