I want to have multiple variables that are set to random elements in the list. Right now I'm doing it somewhat like this:
from random import choice
list = ["a", "b"]
foo = choice(list)
bar = choice(list)
baz = choice(list) #etc.
I'm sure there is a better way to do this. I tried
foo = bar = baz = choice(list)
but, of course it just sets them all to a single element of the list choosen once by random, and I want each variable to be set to new random.choice.
You can use random.sample() if you want to pluck out three distinct elements from the list (i.e. foo is never equal to bar, which might not be what you want):
foo, bar, baz = random.sample(l, 3)
I renamed your variable to l because list is a built-in type. Overriding it by accident won't be pretty.
sample is that it works "without replacement", i.e. won't work in case when you need more samples than there are elements in the original list. See docs.python.org/library/random.html#random.sample Of course it might work in this particular case (depends on the dataset and the needs), but it's worth noting.
maybe create a list with choice outputs? Something like
choices = [choice(list) for i in range(10)]
in which you have 10 elements? Also I would rename list to something else.
Like @Alex suggested but without getting list as result:
foo, bar, baz = [random.choice(list) for i in range(3)]
I would consider putting them in a dict then using somedict['foo'] style access:
from random import choice
CHOICES = ('a', 'b')
choices = {name: choice(CHOICES) for name in ['foo', 'bar', 'baz']}
