Python 3 - Tried Golfing My Assignment

Question

Note: This isn't as much a golfing challenge; it is more so asking for golfing suggestions.

Recently I had a Python assignment for my web development class, in order to check whether we could code. Since I already feel comfortable in Python, I decided to try and golf it, and I was wondering if people could point out things that I missed.

I already know that there are extra spaces in some places, but I'm more interested in conceptual things, like using while r: when r is a variable, and then waiting for it to "run out"!

The assignment

import random
from collections import Counter
s=l=''
c=['yellow','blue','white','green','Black', 'purple', 'silver', 'cyan', 'magenta', 'red']
n=[10,15,1,10,6,15,10,25,1,12,5,10,4,6,5,12,0,10,1,1]
o=i=0
for y in c:l+=y[0]*(random.randint(n[o],n[o+1]));o+=2
l=list(l)              
print("Welcome to the CIMS Gumball Machine Simulator\nYou are starting with the following gumballs:")
for b in c:print(str(l.count(b[0])) + " "+b);random.shuffle(l)
print("Here are your random purchases:")
while 'r' in l:
    random.shuffle(l); r=l.pop(); s+=r
    for j in c:
        if j[0] == r:print(j.capitalize())
print("You purchased %i gumballs, for a total of $%.2f \nMost common gumball(s):" % (len(s),len(s)*25/100))
a=Counter(s).most_common()
m=[x[1] for x in a]
while m[0] == m[i]:
    for j in c:
        if j[0] == a[i][0]:print(j.capitalize(), end=" ")
if(i<(len(m)-1)):i+=1
else:break

Also: I'm sorry if this isn't an appropriate question for the code golf page, since it is not a challenge and will remove it on request.

Answer 1

Here's a whole bunch of micro-optimisations you can do:

Use .split() to create a long list (-17 bytes):

c=['yellow','blue','white','green','Black', 'purple', 'silver', 'cyan', 'magenta', 'red']
c='yellow blue white green Black purple silver cyan magenta red'.split()

Remove extraneous brackets (-2 bytes):

l+=y[0]*(random.randint(n[o],n[o+1]))
l+=y[0]*random.randint(n[o],n[o+1])

Use splat (-2 bytes):

random.randint(n[o],n[o+1])
random.randint(*n[o:o+2])

Use extended iterable unpacking to turn something into a list (-4 bytes):

l=list(l)
*l,=l

Import all the things (-15 bytes):

import random;random.randint;random.shuffle;random.shuffle
from random import*;randint;shuffle;shuffle

Use other functions that can do the same job here (-5 * 2 = -10 bytes):

j.capitalize()
j.title()

print separates by space by default (-11 bytes):

print(str(l.count(b[0])) + " "+b)
print(l.count(b[0]),b)

More unpacking (-3 bytes):

r=l.pop()
*l,r=l

Abuse side-effects (-1 byte, plus indents):

if j[0]==r:print(j.capitalize())
r!=j[0]or print(j.capitalize())

Anything reused and over 5 chars might be worth saving as a variable (-1 byte):

len(s);len(s)
L=len(s);L;L

Simplify fractions (-5 bytes):

len(s)*25/100
len(s)/4

Unary abuse (-4 bytes):

if(i<(len(m)-1)):i+=1
if~-len(m)>i:i+=1

Or the biggest one of all...

Look at your algorithm, and see if it needs changing altogether

from random import*
*s,P,S=print,shuffle
P("Welcome to the CIMS Gumball Machine Simulator\nYou are starting with the following gumballs:")
*l,c,C='yellow blue white green Black purple silver cyan magenta red'.split(),s.count
for x,y,z in zip(c,[10,1,6,10,1,5,4,5,0,1],[15,10,15,25,12,10,6,12,10,1]):n=randint(y,z);l+=[x]*n;P(n,x)
S(l)
P("Here are your random purchases:")
while'red'in l:S(l);*l,r=l;s+=r,;P(r.title())
L=len(s)
P("You purchased %i gumballs, for a total of $%.2f\nMost common gumball(s):"%(L,L/4))
for x in c:C(x)!=max(map(C,c))or P(x.title())

(If you ever find yourself importing Counter in a code-golf, you're probably doing something very wrong...)