How to generate random number with the specific length in python

Question

Let say I need a 3 digit number, so it would be something like:

>>> random(3)
563

or

>>> random(5)
26748
>> random(2)
56

Answer 1

To get a random 3-digit number:

from random import randint
randint(100, 999)  # randint is inclusive at both ends

(assuming you really meant three digits, rather than "up to three digits".)

To use an arbitrary number of digits:

from random import randint

def random_with_N_digits(n):
    range_start = 10**(n-1)
    range_end = (10**n)-1
    return randint(range_start, range_end)

print random_with_N_digits(2)
print random_with_N_digits(3)
print random_with_N_digits(4)

Output:

33
124
5127

Answer 2

Does 0 count as a possible first digit? If so, then you need random.randint(0,10**n-1). If not, random.randint(10**(n-1),10**n-1). And if zero is never allowed, then you'll have to explicitly reject numbers with a zero in them, or draw n random.randint(1,9) numbers.

Aside: it is interesting that randint(a,b) uses somewhat non-pythonic "indexing" to get a random number a <= n <= b. One might have expected it to work like range, and produce a random number a <= n < b. (Note the closed upper interval.)

Given the responses in the comments about randrange, note that these can be replaced with the cleaner random.randrange(0,10**n), random.randrange(10**(n-1),10**n) and random.randrange(1,10).

Answer 3

You could write yourself a little function to do what you want:

import random
def randomDigits(digits):
    lower = 10**(digits-1)
    upper = 10**digits - 1
    return random.randint(lower, upper)

Basically, 10**(digits-1) gives you the smallest {digit}-digit number, and 10**digits - 1 gives you the largest {digit}-digit number (which happens to be the smallest {digit+1}-digit number minus 1!). Then we just take a random integer from that range.