Random number generation in Python

The Python module random contains functions for generating random numbers according to several common distributions.

Distribution	Python function(s)
Uniform	`random()`, `uniform(a, b)`
Beta	`betavariate(alpha, beta)`
Exponential	`expovariate(lambda)`
Gamma	`gammavariate(alpha, beta)`
Normal	`gauss(mean, sigma)`, `normalvariate(mean, sigma)`
Lognormal	`lognormalvariate(mu, sigma)`
Pareto	`paretovariate(alpha)`

There are, however, a few common distributions not on the list above. Code is available here for the following distributions.

SciPy has a large collection of random number generation functions as methods on distribution objects. See Distributions in SciPy.