Python random function

Question

I\'m having problems with Python\'s import random function. It seems that import random and from random import random are importing different thing

Answer 1

If you are using PyDev or other clever IDE, make sure it did not import the module automatically, overriding your import. It can be especially confusing here, when module name is equal to a function name, because the error thrown is not a NameError. In my case I added

import random

and later used it:

r = random.radom()

but got:

AttributeError: 'builtin_function_or_method' object has no attribute 'random'

Only after searching I found that PyDev automatically added the line

from random import random

to the end of my imports, so I was in fact calling attribute random of method random. Solution is to delete the automatic import or use it and call the random() method directly.