[Python] What is the best way to generate random ships in an array in Python?

Recently, I've been working on a battleship game for my CS2 class. The focus of this project is to create a board game using arrays, and I decided to create a battleship. I have most of the code, but I cannot figure out how to get ships to get randomly generated on a 10x10 array without the ships being...

• The wrong length
• Looping around the array

Below is the function I currently have.

def createShips(board):
shipLen = [5,4,3,3,2]
shipAvailable = 5
directionposibilities = ["vertical", "horizontal"]
j = 0

for i in range(shipAvailable):
boatMade = False

#REGULAR VAR STATMENTS
direction = random.choice(directionposibilities)
col = randint(0,9)
row = randint(0,9)

while boatMade == False:

if direction == "vertical":
buildCount = 0
if col + int(shipLen) <= 11:
collision = False
for i in range(0, int(shipLen)):
buildCount += 1
if board[int(row-i)][int(col)-1] == "X":
if collision:
pass
else:
collision = True
if collision:
col = randint(0,9)
row = randint(0,9)
else:

for j in range(buildCount):
board[int(row-j)][int(col)-1] = "X"

boatMade = True
else:
col = randint(0,9)
row = randint(0,9)
if direction == "horizontal":
if col + int(shipLen) <= 10:
collision = False
buildCount = 0
for i in range(0, int(shipLen)):
buildCount += 1
if board[int(row)][int(col)+i-1] == "X":
if collision:
pass
else:
collision = True
if collision:
col = randint(0,9)
row = randint(0,9)
else:

for j in range(buildCount):
board[int(row)][int(col)+j-1] = "X"
boatMade = True
else:
col = randint(0,9)
row = randint(0,9)
shipAvailable = shipAvailable - 1

return(board)

board = [["■"] * 10 for x in range(10)]

print(createShips(board))


If you have any idea why this may not work please let me know!

PS: I am using another function that prints the array nicely, if you would like that for convenience, it is seen below:

def showBoard(board):
print(" A B C D E F G H I J")
print(" ------------------------------")

rownumb = 1
for r in board:
if rownumb == 10:
space = ""
else:
space = " "
print("%d|%s|" % (rownumb, space + "|".join(r)))
rownumb += 1

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