Python Coin Flip – How to Simulate Flipping a Coin in Python

In Python, we can simulate a coin flip and get a random result using the Python random() or choice() function from the random module.

import random import choice, random

#Using random.choice()
coin_flip_with_choice = choice(["Heads","Tails"])

#Using random.random() 
coin_flip_with_random = "Heads" if random() > 0.5 else "Tails"


print(coin_flip_with_choice)
print(coin_flip_with_random)

#Output:
Tails
Heads

Being able to generate random numbers efficiently when working with a programming language is very important. In Python, we can generate random numbers easily to get a coin flip.

To get a coin flip, we can use the Python random module. In the Python random module, we can use the Python random() function, or Python choice() function.

The random() function generates a random float between 0 and 1. The Python choice() function takes in a list of choices and gives a random selection from those choices.

Below is an example of how to get a coin flip and how to flip a coin in Python.

from random import choice, random

#Using random.choice()
coin_flip_with_choice = choice(["Heads","Tails"])

#Using random.random() 
coin_flip_with_random = "Heads" if random() > 0.5 else "Tails"


print(coin_flip_with_choice)
print(coin_flip_with_random)

#Output:
Tails
Heads

In this example, we’ve explicitly returned “Heads” or “Tails, but this could easily be changed if you just want a random boolean.

from random import choice, random

#Using random.choice()
coin_flip_with_choice = choice([True, False])

#Using random.random() 
coin_flip_with_random = True if random() > 0.5 else False


print(coin_flip_with_choice)
print(coin_flip_with_random)

#Output:
True
False

Using Python to Flip Coins in a Loop

If you want to generate a list of coin flips, we can easily define a function and use a loop in Python.

In this example, we will create a function which takes one argument, the number of flips you want to do, and will return a list of coin flips.

Below is some sample code which will flip coins for you in Python.

from random import random

def coin_flips(n):
    flips = []
    for x in range(0,n):
        flips.append("Heads" if random() > 0.5 else "Tails")
    return flips

print(coin_flips(10))

#Output:
['Tails', 'Heads', 'Heads', 'Tails', 'Heads', 'Heads', 'Heads', 'Tails', 'Tails', 'Heads']

Flipping a Coin with numpy and pandas in Python

If you are using numpy or pandas, we can fill a column with the results of a coin flip using the numpy random.rand() allows us to generate random numbers in the same way as the Python random module.

Below is some code which will allow you to flip a coin in Python with numpy.

import pandas as pd
import numpy as np

coin_flip_series = pd.Series(np.random.randint(2, size=10))

print(coin_flip_series)

#Output:
0    1
1    0
2    0
3    0
4    1
5    1
6    1
7    0
8    0
9    1
dtype: int32

Hopefully this article has been beneficial for you to learn how to get a coin flip in Python using the random module.