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random.sample() function - Python - GeeksforGeeks

Last Updated : 29 Apr, 2025

sample() is an built-in function of random module in Python that returns a particular length list of items chosen from the sequence i.e. list, tuple, string or set. Used for random sampling without replacement. Example:

from random import sample

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] 
print(sample(a,3))

Explanation: This code uses the sample() method to randomly select 3 unique elements from the list a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]. The selected elements are printed as a new list.

random.sample(sequence, k)

Parameters:

• sequence: Can be a list, tuple, string, or set.
• k: An Integer value, it specify the length of a sample.

Returns: k length new list of elements chosen from the sequence.

The code demonstrates how to use random.sample() with different types of sequences:

import random

a = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] 
print("With list:", random.sample(a, 3))

s = "GeeksforGeeks"
print("With string:", random.sample(s, 4))

t = ("ankit", "geeks", "computer", "science", "portal", "scientist", "btech")
print("With tuple:", random.sample(t, 4))

b = {"a", "b", "c", "d", "e"}
print("With set:", random.sample(list(b), 3))

With list: [3, 4, 5]
With string: ['r', 'k', 'f', 'e']
With tuple: ['btech', 'scientist', 'portal', 'science']
With set: ['b', 'a', 'e']

Explanation:

• List: It randomly selects 3 elements from the list a.
• String: It randomly selects 4 characters from the string s.
• Tuple: It randomly selects 4 elements from the tuple t.
• Set: Since random.sample() does not directly work with sets, the set b is converted into a list, and 3 random elements are selected.

This code demonstrates the behavior of random.sample() when we try to sample more elements than are present in the list, which will result in a ValueError.

import random

a = [1, 2, 3, 4] 
print(random.sample(a, 5)) 

Output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/guest/sandbox/Solution.py", line 4, in <module>
    print(random.sample(a, 5))
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.13/random.py", line 434, in sample
    raise ValueError("Sample larger than population or is negative")
ValueError: Sample larger than population or is negative

Python | random.sample() function

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