On Aug 27, 3:42 pm, Ivan Voras <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > I have a list of items, and need to choose several elements from it, > "almost random". The catch is that the elements from the beginning > should have more chance of being selected than those at the end (how > much more? I don't care how the "envelope" of probability looks like at > this point - can be linear). I see that there are several functions in > Python standard libraries for various distribution, but is there an easy > pythonic way to make them do what I need? > > signature.asc > 1KDownload
If your list is small enough, you could do something like this: import random test = ['a','b','c','d','e','f','g','h','i','j'] temp = [] size = len(test)-1 for i,j in enumerate(test): temp.extend(j*(2**(size-i))) for i in xrange(400): if i % 30 == 0: print print random.choice(temp), ## a a b a a a i c a a a b c b b a a a a b a a a d a b a a g f ## a e a a a i a b a a b c b a a b a b b c b a b a c a a a a a ## b a a c a c e d b d a a a a a c a b b e a a b a a b a a c a ## a a a a a a b a b a c a a a c a d a c a a d b b b b d a a a ## a a d b a a a b a b b a b a c a a a b b a c b c a a c c c a ## a a b a a a b a b a a a a d c a a b c b b b d b b a a b c a ## a a a a a a b a d b c d b a b c a d b b b a b a b b b b b a ## b c a b a a b c a a a a a a a a b a a a b a a a a a d a b b ## a b b a c a b c a a a a a a a a c b a c c a a e a a a c b b ## a c e b b a a b c a b a b a a b a g a b e a a a c c a a c b ## b i a b a a a a c c c b a a a a a b b b a b b a a b b h a a ## d b a b a b b a a b c a b a a b a a a c a d a a b a b a a a ## a d a b b a b a a c a b c d b a a d a a b b a a a a a d a c ## a a a b a a b a c b Here, 'a' is twice as likely to occur as 'b', which is twice as likely to occur as 'c', which is twice as likely to occur as 'd', etc. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
