Python random.uniform not generate 0

I want to use random.uniform to generate a float in between say [-2, 2], but not generate 0, this is how I do it in a loop,

from random import uniform

flag = True

while flag:
    if uniform(-2, 2) is not 0:
        flag = False

I am wondering is there better way to do it?

cheers

Solution

This is more something for Code Review, but very briefly:

from random import uniform

while True:
    if uniform(-2, 2) != 0.0:
        break

is probably the more Pythonic / standard way to do this (standard, as in that this pattern occurs in other languages as well).

It's rare that a flag variable is necessary to break out of a (while) loop. Perhaps when using a double loop.

Note: I changed your is not to !=, and your 0 to 0.0 (the latter is more so that it's clear we're comparing a float to a float).
Because you're comparing a float to an int, so they'll never be the same item. Besides, comparing numbers using is is a bad idea:

>>> 2*3 is 6  # this may work, but don't rely on it
True
>>> 10*60 is 600  # this obviously doesn't work
False
>>> 0 is 0   # sure, this works...
True
>>> 0.0 is 0  # but this doesn't: float vs int
False

Of course, to answer the actual question if there are other ways to generate those random numbers: probably a dozen.

With a list comprehension inside a list comprehension^*:

[val for val in [uniform(-2, 2) for i in range(10)] if val != 0]

Using numpy:

vals = uniform(-2, 2, 10)
vals = vals[vals!=0]

^* I don't want to call it nested, since I feel that belongs to a slightly different double list comprehension.