Using random to generate strings

Question

I have code that reads from files of surnames, female and male names and randomly generates a name in the following format: lastname, male/female name.

The files are in the following format:

JAMES 3.318 4,840,833 1

I have the following working code:

def picks(filename):
 with open(filename) as f:
 lines = [line.strip('\n') for line in f]
 pick = randint(0, len(lines))
 return lines[pick].split()[0]
def random_name(number_of_names):
 nselect = ''
 for _ in range(1, number_of_names+1):
 g = randint(0,1)
 if g==1:
 nselect = picks('femalenames.txt')
 else:
 nselect = picks('malenames.txt')
 print(g)
 print( '{0:s}, {1:s}\n'.format(picks('surnames.txt'), nselect))
random_name(5)

The code generates the correct output but I feel the code could be trimmed a bit.

Answer 1

Your intuition was accurate! Here is a shortened version with (almost-)identical functionality:

from random import choice
def picks(filename):
 with open(filename) as f:
 lines = [line.strip() for line in f]
 return choice(lines).split()[0] 
def random_names(number_of_names):
 for _ in range(number_of_names):
 nselect = picks(choice(('femalenames.txt', 'malenames.txt')))
 print('{0:s}, {1:s}\n'.format(picks('surnames.txt'), nselect))
random_name(5)

Note the following:

• str.strip removes whitespace (including newlines) by default, so you don't need to make the argument explicit;
• random.choice is a neater way to select a random item from a list than generating and using an index;
• random_names is a better name for the function, as you can specify a varying number of names;
• You don't need to initialise nselect;
• Why carefully adjust an index you aren't actually using by one? 0 is the default start for range, so we can just use number_of_names directly; and
• Selecting directly from the two possible filenames makes the functionality more obvious (although you can no longer print(g), which was a bad name anyway).

• Dan Oberlam: Not worth writing up another answer, but I'd consider memoizing the picks function (weakly, if memory is a concern). Sufficiently large files or desired number of names will make this sluggish if we have to pick every time.
• Leon Surrao: @jonrsharpe. why is the choice in double brackets?
• jonrsharpe: @LeonSurrao one set for the call, one set for the tuple to choose from.