A module is an external extension that can be loaded to a script. It can be seen as a plug-in. Many of them already come with the official Python distribution; others have to be loaded and installed manually. For Python, there are many modules available for all purposes, but how is it possible to find out what has already been installed? The easiest way is to directly call the Python interpreter from a terminal. Linux and OS X have easy access via Bash or the Terminal application. Open a shell editor, e.g. Bash, and type:
prompt> python
A message shows you the currently installed version of Python and a >>> prompt. At the prompt just enter “help(‘modules’)”.
Screenshot from a terminal application with listed modules under OS X.
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“Random” has a lot of features to generate different kinds of random numbers, strings or even ranges and the functions can be used in Python’s typical notation:
| random.random() | Creates a float between 0 and 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| random.randint(a, b) | Creates a random integer between a and b | |
| random.uniform(a, b) | Creates a random float between a and b | |
| random.choice([list]) | Picks a random number/element from a list | |
| random.randrange(start, stop, step) | Creates a random range between start and stop |
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