Generating non-repeating random numbers in Python

Question

Ok this is one of those trickier than it sounds questions so I\'m turning to stack overflow because I can\'t think of a good answer. Here is what I want: I need Python to ge

Answer 1

I started trying to write an explanation of the approach used below, but just implementing it was easier and more accurate. This approach has the odd behavior that it gets faster the more numbers you've generated. But it works, and it doesn't require you to generate all the numbers in advance.

As a simple optimization, you could easily make this class use a probabilistic algorithm (generate a random number, and if it's not in the set of used numbers add it to the set and return it) at first, keep track of the collision rate, and switch over to the deterministic approach used here once the collision rate gets bad.

import random

class NonRepeatingRandom(object):

    def __init__(self, maxvalue):
        self.maxvalue = maxvalue
        self.used = set()

    def next(self):
        if len(self.used) >= self.maxvalue:
            raise StopIteration
        r = random.randrange(0, self.maxvalue - len(self.used))
        result = 0
        for i in range(1, r+1):
            result += 1
            while result in self.used:
                 result += 1
        self.used.add(result)
        return result

    def __iter__(self):
        return self

    def __getitem__(self):
        raise NotImplemented

    def get_all(self):
        return [i for i in self]

>>> n = NonRepeatingRandom(20)
>>> n.get_all()
[12, 14, 13, 2, 20, 4, 15, 16, 19, 1, 8, 6, 7, 9, 5, 11, 10, 3, 18, 17]