Why do i need to write (answers[random.randint(0, len(answers) - 1)] instead of random.choice?

Question

Hello everyone I learned the basics of python. I wanted to start a project on a magic8ball. It didn't worked so I searched a bit and found a working code. He uses this weird thing and I don't know why. Can someone explain what this means?

Answer 1

choice() returns a random item from a list, tuple, or string while randint() returns a pseudorandom integer between a and b. You can use either, assuming you are passing it the right parameters. Say you have

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

import random
random.choice(a)     # will return a random number from that list
random.randint(1,7)  # will return a random number between 1 and 7  itself

In your case,

answers[randint(0, len(answers) - 1)]

will give you a random integer between 0 and however long the list of answers is minus one.