Ivan Voras wrote:
> 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?
import random
def choose(samples, **kwargs):
total = sum(kwargs.values())
result = []
for n in range(samples):
choice = random.random() * total
for key, weight in kwargs.iteritems():
choice -= weight
if choice <= 0:
result.append(key)
total -= kwargs.pop(key)
break
else:
raise ValueError('Too many samples taken from the universe')
return result
print choose(3, a=1, b=2, c=2, d=1, e=3)
-Scott David Daniels
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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