Clarify behaviour of random.uniform

[mdickinson]

BPO	6261
Nosy	@birkenfeld, @rhettinger, @mdickinson

^{Note: these values reflect the state of the issue at the time it was migrated and might not reflect the current state.}

Show more details

GitHub fields:

assignee = 'https://github.com/rhettinger'
closed_at = <Date 2009-06-11.23:12:42.440>
created_at = <Date 2009-06-10.21:30:27.361>
labels = ['docs']
title = 'Clarify behaviour of random.uniform'
updated_at = <Date 2009-06-11.23:12:42.438>
user = 'https://github.com/mdickinson'

bugs.python.org fields:

activity = <Date 2009-06-11.23:12:42.438>
actor = 'rhettinger'
assignee = 'rhettinger'
closed = True
closed_date = <Date 2009-06-11.23:12:42.440>
closer = 'rhettinger'
components = ['Documentation']
creation = <Date 2009-06-10.21:30:27.361>
creator = 'mark.dickinson'
dependencies = []
files = []
hgrepos = []
issue_num = 6261
keywords = []
message_count = 4.0
messages = ['89232', '89233', '89234', '89266']
nosy_count = 3.0
nosy_names = ['georg.brandl', 'rhettinger', 'mark.dickinson']
pr_nums = []
priority = 'low'
resolution = 'fixed'
stage = None
status = 'closed'
superseder = None
type = None
url = 'https://bugs.python.org/issue6261'
versions = ['Python 2.6', 'Python 3.0', 'Python 3.1', 'Python 2.7']

[mdickinson]

The documentation for random.uniform() was recently updated to reflect
the fact that it's possible for random.uniform(a, b) to produce the
value b; see bpo-4979.

In a recent c.l.p. thread, Robert Kern suggested that 'it
might be confusing to a user why random.random() returns values in a
half-open interval while random.uniform() claims a closed interval';
the thread itself confirms this potential for confusion. See

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-list/2009-June/715851.html

Suggested extra wording for random.uniform, from Robert Kern:

"Due to floating point arithmetic, for some values of a and b, b may or
may not be one of the possible generated results."

[mdickinson]

Regardless of whether the extra wording is added or not, the docstring for
random.uniform should probably be changed to match the online
documentation. It currently says:

"""Get a random number in the range [a, b)."""

That should probably be:

"""Get a random number in the range [a, b]."""

[rhettinger]

Right.

[rhettinger]

Fixed in r73380