Python shuffle such that position will never repeat - python

I'd like to do a random shuffle of a list but with one condition: an element can never be in the same original position after the shuffle.
Is there a one line way to do such in python for a list?
Example:
list_ex = [1,2,3]
each of the following shuffled lists should have the same probability of being sampled after the shuffle:
list_ex_shuffled = [2,3,1]
list_ex_shuffled = [3,1,2]
but the permutations [1,2,3], [1,3,2], [2,1,3] and [3,2,1] are not allowed since all of them repeat one of the elements positions.
NOTE: Each element in the list_ex is a unique id. No repetition of the same element is allowed.

Randomize in a loop and keep rejecting the results until your condition is satisfied:
import random
def shuffle_list(some_list):
randomized_list = some_list[:]
while True:
random.shuffle(randomized_list)
for a, b in zip(some_list, randomized_list):
if a == b:
break
else:
return randomized_list

I'd describe such shuffles as 'permutations with no fixed points'. They're also known as derangements.
The probability that a random permutation is a derangement is approximately 1/e (fun to prove). This is true however long the list. Thus an obvious algorithm to give a random derangement is to shuffle the cards normally, and keep shuffling until you have a derangement. The expected number of necessary shuffles is about 3, and it's rare you'll have to shuffle more than ten times.
(1-1/e)**11 < 1%
Suppose there are n people at a party, each of whom brought an umbrella. At the end of the party, each person takes an umbrella at random from the basket. What is the probability that no-one holds their own umbrella?

You could generate all possible valid shufflings:
>>> list_ex = [1,2,3]
>>> import itertools
>>> list(itertools.ifilter(lambda p: not any(i1==i2 for i1,i2 in zip(list_ex, p)),
... itertools.permutations(list_ex, len(list_ex))))
[(2, 3, 1), (3, 1, 2)]
For some other sequence:
>>> list_ex = [7,8,9,0]
>>> list(itertools.ifilter(lambda p: not any(i1==i2 for i1,i2 in zip(list_ex, p)),
... itertools.permutations(list_ex, len(list_ex))))
[(8, 7, 0, 9), (8, 9, 0, 7), (8, 0, 7, 9), (9, 7, 0, 8), (9, 0, 7, 8), (9, 0, 8, 7), (0, 7, 8, 9), (0, 9, 7, 8), (0, 9, 8, 7)]
You could also make this a bit more efficient by short-circuiting the iterator if you just want one result:
>>> list_ex = [1,2,3]
>>> i = itertools.ifilter(lambda p: not any(i1==i2 for i1,i2 in zip(list_ex, p)),
... itertools.permutations(list_ex, len(list_ex)))
>>> next(i)
(2, 3, 1)
But, it would not be a random choice. You'd have to generate all of them and choose one for it to be an actual random result:
>>> list_ex = [1,2,3]
>>> i = itertools.ifilter(lambda p: not any(i1==i2 for i1,i2 in zip(list_ex, p)),
... itertools.permutations(list_ex, len(list_ex)))
>>> import random
>>> random.choice(list(i))
(2, 3, 1)

Here is another take on this. You can pick one solution or another depending on your needs. This is not a one liner but shuffles the indices of elements instead of the elements themselves. Thus, the original list may have duplicate values or values of types that cannot be compared or may be expensive to compare.
#! /usr/bin/env python
import random
def shuffled_values(data):
list_length = len(data)
candidate = range(list_length)
while True:
random.shuffle(candidate)
if not any(i==j for i,j in zip(candidate, range(list_length))):
yield [data[i] for i in candidate]
list_ex = [1, 2, 3]
list_gen = shuffled_values(list_ex)
for i in range(0, 10):
print list_gen.next()
This gives:
[2, 3, 1]
[3, 1, 2]
[3, 1, 2]
[2, 3, 1]
[3, 1, 2]
[3, 1, 2]
[2, 3, 1]
[2, 3, 1]
[3, 1, 2]
[2, 3, 1]
If list_ex is [2, 2, 2], this method will keep yielding [2, 2, 2] over and over. The other solutions will give you empty lists. I am not sure what you want in this case.

Use Knuth-Durstenfeld to shuffle the list. As long as it is found to be in the original position during the shuffling process, a new shuffling process is started from the beginning until it returns to a qualified arrangement. The time complexity of this algorithm is the smallest constant term:
def _random_derangement(x: list, randint: Callable[[int, int], int]) -> None:
'''
Random derangement list x in place, and return None.
An element can never be in the same original position after the shuffle. provides uniform distribution over permutations.
The formal parameter randint requires a callable object such as rand_int(b, a) that generates a random integer within the specified closed interval.
'''
from collections import namedtuple
sequence_type = namedtuple('sequence_type', ('sequence_number', 'elem'))
x_length = len(x)
if x_length > 1:
for i in range(x_length):
x[i] = sequence_type(sequence_number = i, elem = x[i])
end_label = x_length - 1
while True:
for i in range(end_label, 0, -1):
random_location = randint(i, 0)
if x[random_location].sequence_number != i:
x[i], x[random_location] = x[random_location], x[i]
else:
break
else:
if x[0].sequence_number != 0: break
for i in range(x_length):
x[i] = x[i].elem
complete_shuffle

Here's another algorithm. Take cards at random. If your ith card is card i, put it back and try again. Only problem, what if when you get to the last card it's the one you don't want. Swap it with one of the others.
I think this is fair (uniformally random).
import random
def permutation_without_fixed_points(n):
if n == 1:
raise ArgumentError, "n must be greater than 1"
result = []
remaining = range(n)
i = 0
while remaining:
if remaining == [n-1]:
break
x = i
while x == i:
j = random.randrange(len(remaining))
x = remaining[j]
remaining.pop(j)
result.append(x)
i += 1
if remaining == [n-1]:
j = random.randrange(n-1)
result.append(result[j])
result[j] = n
return result

Related

how to make sure that two numbers next to each other in a list are different

I have a simple code that generates a list of random numbers.
x = [random.randrange(0,11) for i in range(10)]
The problem I'm having is that, since it's random, it sometimes produces duplicate numbers right next to each other. How do I change the code so that it never happens? I'm looking for something like this:
[1, 7, 2, 8, 7, 2, 8, 2, 6, 5]
So that every time I run the code, all the numbers that are next to each other are different.
x = []
while len(x) < 10:
r = random.randrange(0,11)
if not x or x[-1] != r:
x.append(r)
x[-1] contains the last inserted element, which we check not to be the same as the new random number. With not x we check that the array is not empty, as it would generate a IndexError during the first iteration of the loop
Here's an approach that doesn't rely on retrying:
>>> import random
>>> x = [random.choice(range(12))]
>>> for _ in range(9):
... x.append(random.choice([*range(x[-1]), *range(x[-1]+1, 12)]))
...
>>> x
[6, 2, 5, 8, 1, 8, 0, 4, 6, 0]
The idea is to choose each new number by picking from a list that excludes the previously picked number.
Note that having to re-generate a new list to pick from each time keeps this from actually being an efficiency improvement. If you were generating a very long list from a relatively short range, though, it might be worthwhile to generate different pools of numbers up front so that you could then select from the appropriate one in constant time:
>>> pool = [[*range(i), *range(i+1, 3)] for i in range(3)]
>>> x = [random.choice(random.choice(pool))]
>>> for _ in range(10000):
... x.append(random.choice(pool[x[-1]]))
...
>>> x
[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 2, 1, 0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 2, 1, 0, ...]
O(n) solution by adding to the last element randomly from [1,stop) modulo stop
import random
x = [random.randrange(0,11)]
x.extend((x[-1]+random.randrange(1,11)) % 11 for i in range(9))
x
Output
[0, 10, 4, 5, 10, 1, 4, 8, 0, 9]
from random import randrange
from itertools import islice, groupby
# Make an infinite amount of randrange's results available
pool = iter(lambda: randrange(0, 11), None)
# Use groupby to squash consecutive values into one and islice to at most 10 in total
result = [v for v, _ in islice(groupby(pool), 10)]
Function solution that doesn't iterate to check for repeats, just checks each add against the last number in the list:
import random
def get_random_list_without_neighbors(lower_limit, upper_limit, length):
res = []
# add the first number
res.append(random.randrange(lower_limit, upper_limit))
while len(res) < length:
x = random.randrange(lower_limit, upper_limit)
# check that the new number x doesn't match the last number in the list
if x != res[-1]:
res.append(x)
return res
>>> print(get_random_list_without_neighbors(0, 11, 10)
[10, 1, 2, 3, 1, 8, 6, 5, 6, 2]
def random_sequence_without_same_neighbours(n, min, max):
x = [random.randrange(min, max + 1)]
uniq_value_count = max - min + 1
next_choises_count = uniq_value_count - 1
for i in range(n - 1):
circular_shift = random.randrange(0, next_choises_count)
x.append(min + (x[-1] + circular_shift + 1) % uniq_value_count)
return x
random_sequence_without_same_neighbours(n=10, min=0, max=10)
It's not to much pythonic but you can do something like this
import random
def random_numbers_generator(n):
"Generate a list of random numbers but without two duplicate numbers in a row "
result = []
for _ in range(n):
number = random.randint(1, n)
if result and number == result[-1]:
continue
result.append(number)
return result
print(random_numbers_generator(10))
Result:
3, 6, 2, 4, 2, 6, 2, 1, 4, 7]

Can you for loop completely through a range, but starting from the nth element?

I would like to know if there exists a base solution to do something like this:
for n in range(length=8, start_position= 3, direction= forward)
The problem I'm encountering is I would like the loop to continue past the final index, and pick up again at idx =0, then idx=1, etc. and stop at idx= 3, the start_position.
To give context, I seek all possible complete solutions to the n-queen problem.
Based on your latest edit, you need a "normal" range and the modulo operator:
for i in range(START, START + LEN):
do_something_with(i % LEN)
from itertools import chain
for n in chain(range(3,8), range(3)):
...
The chain() returns an iterator with 3, 4, ..., 7, 0, 1, 2
Another option for solving this is to use modular arithmetic. You could do something like this, for example:
for i in range(8)
idx = (i + 3) % 8
# use idx
This easily can be generalized to work with different lengths and offsets.
def loop_around_range(length, start_position, direction='forward'):
looped_range = [k % length for k in range(start_position, start_position+length)]
if direction == 'forward':
return looped_range
else:
return looped_range[::-1]
You could implement this for an arbitrary iterable by using itertools.cycle.
from itertools import cycle
def circular_iterator(iterable, skip=0, length=None, reverse=False):
"""Produces a full cycle of #iterable#, skipping the first #skip# elements
then tacking them on to the end.
if #iterable# does not implement #__len__#, you must provide #length#
"""
if reverse:
iterable = reversed(iterable)
cyc_iter = cycle(iterable)
for _ in range(skip):
next(cyc_iter, None)
if length:
total_length = length
else:
total_length = len(iterable)
for _ in range(total_length):
yield next(cyc_iter, None)
>>> lst = [x for x in range(1, 9)]
# [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
>>> list(circular_iterator(lst, skip=3))
[4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3]

Python - iterating beginning with the middle of the list and then checking either side

Really not sure where this fits. Say, I have a list:
>>>a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
How can I iterate it in such a way, that it will check 4 first, then 5, then 3, then 6, and then 2(and so on for bigger lists)? I have only been able to work out the middle which is
>>>middle = [len(a)/2 if len(a) % 2 = 0 else ((len(a)+1)/2)]
I'm really not sure how to apply this, nor am I sure that my way of working out the middle is the best way. I've thought of grabbing two indexes and after each iteration, adding 1 and subtracting 1 from each respective index but have no idea how to make a for loop abide by these rules.
With regards as to why I need this; it's for analysing a valid play in a card game and will check from the middle card of a given hand up to each end until a valid card can be played.
You can just keep removing from the middle of list:
lst = range(1, 8)
while lst:
print lst.pop(len(lst)/2)
This is not the best solution performance-wise (removing item from list is expensive), but it is simple - good enough for a simple game.
EDIT:
More performance stable solution would be a generator, that calculates element position:
def iter_from_middle(lst):
try:
middle = len(lst)/2
yield lst[middle]
for shift in range(1, middle+1):
# order is important!
yield lst[middle - shift]
yield lst[middle + shift]
except IndexError: # occures on lst[len(lst)] or for empty list
raise StopIteration
To begin with, here is a very useful general purpose utility to interleave two sequences:
def imerge(a, b):
for i, j in itertools.izip_longest(a,b):
yield i
if j is not None:
yield j
with that, you just need to imerge
a[len(a) / 2: ]
with
reversed(a[: len(a) / 2])
You could also play index games, for example:
>>> a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
>>> [a[(len(a) + (~i, i)[i%2]) // 2] for i in range(len(a))]
[4, 5, 3, 6, 2, 7, 1]
>>> a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
>>> [a[(len(a) + (~i, i)[i%2]) // 2] for i in range(len(a))]
[4, 5, 3, 6, 2, 7, 1, 8]
Here's a generator that yields alternating indexes for any given provided length. It could probably be improved/shorter, but it works.
def backNforth(length):
if length == 0:
return
else:
middle = length//2
yield middle
for ind in range(1, middle + 1):
if length > (2 * ind - 1):
yield middle - ind
if length > (2 * ind):
yield middle + ind
# for testing:
if __name__ == '__main__':
r = range(9)
for _ in backNforth(len(r)):
print(r[_])
Using that, you can just do this to produce a list of items in the order you want:
a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]
a_prime = [a[_] for _ in backNforth(len(a))]
In addition to the middle elements, I needed their index as well. I found Wasowski's answer very helpful, and modified it:
def iter_from_middle(lst):
index = len(lst)//2
for i in range(len(lst)):
index = index+i*(-1)**i
yield index, lst[index]
>>> my_list = [10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15]
>>> [(index, item) for index, item in iter_from_middle(my_list)]
[(3, 13), (2, 12), (4, 14), (1, 11), (5, 15), (0, 10)]

Number of distinct items between two consecutive uses of an item in realtime

I'm working on an problem that finds the distance- the number of distinct items between two consecutive uses of an item in realtime. The input is read from a large file (~10G), but for illustration I'll use a small list.
from collections import OrderedDict
unique_dist = OrderedDict()
input = [1, 4, 4, 2, 4, 1, 5, 2, 6, 2]
for item in input:
if item in unique_dist:
indx = unique_dist.keys().index(item) # find the index
unique_dist.pop(item) # pop the item
size = len(unique_dist) # find the size of the dictionary
unique_dist[item] = size - indx # update the distance value
else:
unique_dist[item] = -1 # -1 if it is new
print input
print unique_dist
As we see, for each item I first check if the item is already present in the dictionary, and if it is, I update the value of the distance or else I insert it at the end with the value -1. The problem is that this seems to be very inefficient as the size grows bigger. Memory isn't a problem, but the pop function seems to be. I say that because, just for the sake if I do:
for item in input:
unique_dist[item] = random.randint(1,99999)
the program runs really fast. My question is, is there any way I could make my program more efficient(fast)?
EDIT:
It seems that the actual culprit is indx = unique_dist.keys().index(item). When I replaced that with indx = 1. The program was orders of magnitude faster.
According to a simple analysis I did with the cProfile module, the most expensive operations by far are OrderedDict.__iter__() and OrderedDict.keys().
The following implementation is roughly 7 times as fast as yours (according to the limited testing I did).
It avoids the call to unique_dist.keys() by maintaining a list of items keys. I'm not entirely sure, but I think this also avoids the call to OrderedDict.__iter__().
It avoids the call to len(unique_dist) by incrementing the size variable whenever necessary. (I'm not sure how expensive of an operation len(OrderedDict) is, but whatever)
def distance(input):
dist= []
key_set= set()
keys= []
size= 0
for item in input:
if item in key_set:
index= keys.index(item)
del keys[index]
del dist[index]
keys.append(item)
dist.append(size-index-1)
else:
key_set.add(item)
keys.append(item)
dist.append(-1)
size+= 1
return OrderedDict(zip(keys, dist))
I modified #Rawing's answer to overcome the overhead caused by the lookup and insertion time taken by set data structure.
from random import randint
dist = {}
input = []
for x in xrange(1,10):
input.append(randint(1,5))
keys = []
size = 0
for item in input:
if item in dist:
index = keys.index(item)
del keys[index]
keys.append(item)
dist[item] = size-index-1
else:
keys.append(item)
dist[item] = -1
size += 1
print input
print dist
How about this:
from collections import OrderedDict
unique_dist = OrderedDict()
input = [1, 4, 4, 2, 4, 1, 5, 2, 6, 2]
for item in input:
if item in unique_dist:
indx = unique_dist.keys().index(item)
#unique_dist.pop(item) # dont't pop the item
size = len(unique_dist) # now the directory is one element to big
unique_dist[item] = size - indx - 1 # therefor decrement the value here
else:
unique_dist[item] = -1 # -1 if it is new
print input
print unique_dist
[1, 4, 4, 2, 4, 1, 5, 2, 6, 2]
OrderedDict([(1, 2), (4, 1), (2, 2), (5, -1), (6, -1)])
Beware that the entries in unique_dist are now ordered by there first occurrence of the item in the input; yours were ordered by there last occurrence:
[1, 4, 4, 2, 4, 1, 5, 2, 6, 2]
OrderedDict([(4, 1), (1, 2), (5, -1), (6, -1), (2, 1)])

Creating dynamic sublists from a list /sequence in python

Im trying to write a function that creates set of dynamic sublists each containing 5 elements from a list passed to it.Here's my attempt at the code
def sublists(seq):
i=0
x=[]
while i<len(seq)-1:
j=0
while j<5:
X.append(seq[i]) # How do I change X after it reaches size 5?
#return set of sublists
EDIT:
Sample input: [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
Expected output: [[1,2,3,4,5],[6,7,8,9,10]]
Well, for starters, you'll need to (or at least should) have two lists, a temporary one and a permanent one that you return (Also you will need to increase j and i or, more practically, use a for loop, but I assume you just forgot to post that).
EDIT removed first code as the style given doesn't match easily with the expected results, see other two possibilities.
Or, more sensibly:
def sublists(seq):
x=[]
for i in range(0,len(seq),5):
x.append(seq[i:i+5])
return x
Or, more sensibly again, a simple list comprehension:
def sublists(seq):
return [seq[i:i+5] for i in range(0,len(seq),5)]
When given the list:
l = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10]
They will return
[[1, 2, 3, 4, 5], [6, 7, 8, 9, 10]]
Have you considered using itertools.combinations(...)?
For example:
>>> from itertools import combinations
>>> l = [1,2,3,4,5,6]
>>> list(combinations(l, 5))
[(1, 2, 3, 4, 5), (1, 2, 3, 4, 6), (1, 2, 3, 5, 6), (1, 2, 4, 5, 6), (1, 3, 4, 5, 6), (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)]
By "dynamic sublists", do you mean break up the list into groups of five elements? This is similar to your approach:
def sublists(lst, n):
ret = []
i = 0
while i < len(lst):
ret.append(seq[i:i+n])
i += n
return ret
Or, using iterators:
def sublists(seq, n):
it = iter(seq)
while True:
r = list(itertools.islice(it, 5))
if not r:
break
yield r
which will return an iterator of lists over list of length up to five. (If you took out the list call, weird things would happen if you didn't access the iterators in the same order.)

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