Python Birthday paradox math not working - python-2.6

Question

it run corectly but it should have around 500 matches but it only has around 50 and I dont know why!
This is a probelm for my comsci class that I am having isues with
we had to make a function that checks a list for duplication I got that part but then we had to apply it to the birthday paradox( more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birthday_problem) thats where I am runing into problem because my teacher said that the total number of times should be around 500 or 50% but for me its only going around 50-70 times or 5%
duplicateNumber=0
import random
def has_duplicates(listToCheck):
for i in listToCheck:
x=listToCheck.index(i)
del listToCheck[x]
if i in listToCheck:
return True
else:
return False
listA=[1,2,3,4]
listB=[1,2,3,1]
#print has_duplicates(listA)
#print has_duplicates(listB)
for i in range(0,1000):
birthdayList=[]
for i in range(0,23):
birthday=random.randint(1,365)
birthdayList.append(birthday)
x= has_duplicates(birthdayList)
if x==True:
duplicateNumber+=1
else:
pass
print "after 1000 simulations with 23 students there were", duplicateNumber,"simulations with atleast one match. The approximate probibilatiy is", round(((duplicateNumber/1000)*100),3),"%"

Answer 1

This code gave me a result in line with what you were expecting:
import random
duplicateNumber=0
def has_duplicates(listToCheck):
number_set = set(listToCheck)
if len(number_set) is not len(listToCheck):
return True
else:
return False
for i in range(0,1000):
birthdayList=[]
for j in range(0,23):
birthday=random.randint(1,365)
birthdayList.append(birthday)
x = has_duplicates(birthdayList)
if x==True:
duplicateNumber+=1
print "after 1000 simulations with 23 students there were", duplicateNumber,"simulations with atleast one match. The approximate probibilatiy is", round(((duplicateNumber/1000.0)*100),3),"%"
The first change I made was tidying up the indices you were using in those nested for loops. You'll see I changed the second one to j, as they were previously bot i.
The big one, though, was to the has_duplicates function. The basic principle here is that creating a set out of the incoming list gets the unique values in the list. By comparing the number of items in the number_set to the number in listToCheck we can judge whether there are any duplicates or not.

Answer 2

Here is what you are looking for. As this is not standard practice (to just throw code at a new user), I apologize if this offends any other users. However, I believe showing the OP a correct way to write a program should be could all do us a favor if said user keeps the lack of documentation further on in his career.
Thus, please take a careful look at the code, and fill in the blanks. Look up the python doumentation (as dry as it is), and try to understand the things that you don't get right away. Even if you understand something just by the name, it would still be wise to see what is actually happening when some built-in method is being used.
Last, but not least, take a look at this code, and take a look at your code. Note the differences, and keep trying to write your code from scratch (without looking at mine), and if it messes up, see where you went wrong, and start over. This sort of practice is key if you wish to succeed later on in programming!
def same_birthdays():
import random
'''
This is a program that does ________. It is really important
that we tell readers of this code what it does, so that the
reader doesn't have to piece all of the puzzles together,
while the key is right there, in the mind of the programmer.
'''
count = 0
#Count is going to store the number of times that we have the same birthdays
timesToRun = 1000 #timesToRun should probably be in a parameter
#timesToRun is clearly defined in its name as well. Further elaboration
#on its purpose is not necessary.
for i in range(0,timesToRun):
birthdayList = []
for j in range(0,23):
random_birthday = random.randint(1,365)
birthdayList.append(random_birthday)
birthdayList = sorted(birthdayList) #sorting for easier matching
#If we really want to, we could provide a check in the above nester
#for loop to check right away if there is a duplicate.
#But again, we are here
for j in range(0, len(birthdayList)-1):
if (birthdayList[j] == birthdayList[j+1]):
count+=1
break #leaving this nested for-loop
return count
If you wish to find the percent, then get rid of the above return statement and add:
return (count/timesToRun)

Answer 3

Here's a solution that doesn't use set(). It also takes a different approach with the array so that each index represents a day of the year. I also removed the hasDuplicate() function.
import random
sim_total=0
birthdayList=[]
#initialize an array of 0's representing each calendar day
for i in range(365):
birthdayList.append(0)
for i in range(0,1000):
first_dup=True
for n in range(365):
birthdayList[n]=0
for b in range(0, 23):
r = random.randint(0,364)
birthdayList[r]+=1
if (birthdayList[r] > 1) and (first_dup==True):
sim_total+=1
first_dup=False
avg = float(sim_total) / 1000 * 100
print "after 1000 simulations with 23 students there were", sim_total,"simulations with atleast one duplicate. The approximate problibility is", round(avg,3),"%"