How can I randomly select an item from a list?

Question

Assume I have the following list:

foo = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e'] 

What is the simplest way to retrieve an item at random from this list?

Answer 1

Use random.choice():

import random  foo = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e'] print(random.choice(foo)) 

For cryptographically secure random choices (e.g., for generating a passphrase from a wordlist), use secrets.choice():

import secrets  foo = ['battery', 'correct', 'horse', 'staple'] print(secrets.choice(foo)) 

secrets is new in Python 3.6. On older versions of Python you can use the random.SystemRandom class:

import random  secure_random = random.SystemRandom() print(secure_random.choice(foo))