Python dice rolling simulation

Question

I\'m having trouble with a code where I need to roll a six-sided die 1000 times and then return a list of how many times each number on the die was rolled.

The code

Answer 1

I can't improve on Martijn Pieters's answer. :-) But this problem can be more conveniently solved using a list.

import random

def rollDie(number):
    # create a list with 7 values; we will only use the top six
    rolls = [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]
    for i in range(0, number):
        roll=int(random.randint(1,6))
        rolls[roll] += 1
    return rolls

if __name__ == "__main__":
    result = rollDie(1000)
    print(result[1:])  # print only the indices from 1 to 6

And, this is a little bit tricky, but here is a better way to create a list of 7 entries all set to zero:

rolls = [0] * 7

Why count the zeros yourself? It's easier to just make Python do the work for you. :-)

EDIT: The list is length 7 because we want to use indices 1 through 6. There is also a position 0 in the list, but we don't use it.

Another way to do it is to map the dice rolls onto indices. It's a pretty simple mapping: just subtract 1. So, a die roll of 1 would go into index 0 of the list, a die roll of 2 would go into index 1, and so on. Now we will use every position in the list.

Here's that version:

import random

def rollDie(number):
    rolls = [0] * 6
    for i in range(0, number):
        roll=int(random.randint(1,6))
        rolls[roll - 1] += 1
    return rolls

if __name__ == "__main__":
    result = rollDie(1000)
    print(result)