code: def sample_items(num_items, shape, random_state=None):
      """
      Randomly sample a number of items.
  
      Parameters
      ----------
  
      num_items: int
          Total number of items from which we should sample:
          the maximum value of a sampled item id will be smaller
          than this.
      shape: int or tuple of ints
          Shape of the sampled array.
      random_state: np.random.RandomState instance, optional
          Random state to use for sampling.
  
      Returns
      -------
  
      items: np.array of shape [shape]
          Sampled item ids.
      """
  
      if random_state is None:
          random_state = np.random.RandomState()
  
      items = random_state.randint(0, num_items, shape, dtype=np.int64)
  
      return items
  
label_desc: Use image node_id 1 for calling a global function with example usage: sample_items(num_items, shape, random_state) and returns: items