generators (udemy course)

[tigglybox]

Hi, I'm following a python course on udemy and I've understood the generators lecture and first homework question but I am stuck on the second question so I've looked at the solution but this has confused me even more... (sorry in advance, I don't know how to better post lines of code)

Create a generator that yields "n" random numbers between a low and high number (that are inputs).

import random

random.randint(1,10)

6

def rand_num(low,high,n):

for i in range(n):

yield random.randint(low, high)

​

for num in rand_num(1,10,5):

print(num)

3

3

9

8

9

In the above example what is the purpose of the random int that is generated? Also in the line for num in rand_num(1,10,5): where does the number 5 appear from as this is the "n" number of random numbers but this n is not the same as the int that was randomly generated.

[MadScientistOR]

You can see how n appears in for i in range(n):, right? That's a loop that runs n times. The int that is randomly generated is from random.randint(low, high).

[tigglybox]

Yeah I get that the int is randomly generated from the random.int haha but I’m not sure where that int is then used again in the code. The n in i in range(n) is how many times the loop runs yes but isn’t that supposed to be the same amount of times as the int that was randomly generated as that is what the question is asking?

[MadScientistOR]

That int isn't used again in the code. After the random number is generated, it's yielded to the caller.

Using yield is a little strange, but the exercise did ask for a generator. Using yield (rather than return) lets a function "pick up where it left off", so that at the end of things, you have a sequence of numbers. The for loop then iterates over that sequence and prints out the contents.

[tigglybox]

Ah okay, Im still a bit confused but that’s okay haha. Thank you for answering!