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random.sample() docs unclear on k < len(population) #59470
Description
| BPO | 15265 |
|---|---|
| Nosy | @rhettinger |
| Files |
Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.
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GitHub fields:
assignee = 'https://github.com/rhettinger'
closed_at = <Date 2012-07-08.23:02:27.161>
created_at = <Date 2012-07-06.17:50:44.677>
labels = ['type-feature', 'docs']
title = 'random.sample() docs unclear on k < len(population)'
updated_at = <Date 2012-07-08.23:02:27.160>
user = 'https://bugs.python.org/roysmith'bugs.python.org fields:
activity = <Date 2012-07-08.23:02:27.160>
actor = 'rhettinger'
assignee = 'rhettinger'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2012-07-08.23:02:27.161>
closer = 'rhettinger'
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2012-07-06.17:50:44.677>
creator = 'roysmith'
dependencies = []
files = ['26285', '26296']
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 15265
keywords = ['patch']
message_count = 6.0
messages = ['164742', '164803', '164843', '164845', '165043', '165044']
nosy_count = 5.0
nosy_names = ['rhettinger', 'roysmith', 'docs@python', 'python-dev', 'kmox83']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'low'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = 'enhancement'
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue15265'
versions = []
Activity
roysmith commentedon Jul 6, 2012
The docs don't say what happens if you call random.sample() with a population smaller than k. Experimentally, it raises ValueError, but this should be documented.
I would have guessed it would return IndexError, by analogy to random.choice().
kmox83 commentedon Jul 7, 2012
Added the related line to the documentation describing when the exception is raised.
roysmith commentedon Jul 7, 2012
The docs describe population as a "sequence". Your patch describes it as a "list". I would go with:
If *len(population)* is less than *k*, raises :exc:`ValueError`.
kmox83 commentedon Jul 7, 2012
Ok, I have updated the patch
python-dev commentedon Jul 8, 2012
New changeset 72174d8af3ba by Raymond Hettinger in branch 'default':
bpo-15265: document the exception raised for invalid sample sizes.
http://hg.python.org/cpython/rev/72174d8af3ba
rhettinger commentedon Jul 8, 2012
Thanks, I've added a note.