use random functions (python)

Question

I wonder if we can do that in python, let's suppose we have 3 differents functions to processing datas like this:

def main():
  def process(data):
     .....
  def process1(data):
     .....
  def process2(data):
     .....
  def run():
     test = choice([process,process1,process2])
     test(data)
  run()

main()

Can we choice one random function to process the data ? If yes, is this a good way to do so ?

Thanks !

Answer 1

Excellent approach (net of some oversimplification in your skeleton code). Since you ask for an example:

import random

def main():
  def process(data):
     return data + [0]
  def process1(data):
     return data + [9]
  def process2(data):
     return data + [7]
  def run(data):
     test = random.choice([process,process1,process2])
     print test(data)
  for i in range(7):
    run([1, 2, 3])

main()

I've made it loop 7 times just to show that each choice is indeed random, i.e., a typical output might be something like:

[1, 2, 3, 7]
[1, 2, 3, 0]
[1, 2, 3, 0]
[1, 2, 3, 7]
[1, 2, 3, 0]
[1, 2, 3, 9]
[1, 2, 3, 9]

(changing randomly each and every time, of course;-).

Answer 2

Sure is!

That the nice thing in Python, functions are first class objects and can be referenced in such an easy fashion.

The implication is that all three methods have the same expectation with regards to arguments passed to them. (This probably goes without saying).