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?
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (MingW32)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
iD8DBQFG0zdFldnAQVacBcgRAg/yAJ9ZVWfDptl4Qxl+kSIpZqoi00qNYgCg+YNf
jVEXRG+grsbVDrRH1wXSw14=
=mGlJ
-----END PGP SIGNATURE----- 22  3980 
How about decorating your list of elements with an additional value,
which indicates the weight of that element. A value of 1 will indicate
'as likely as any other', < 1 will be 'less likely than' any other and
1 will be 'more likely than any other'. Then create a sorted list
based on the combined value of weight and the output of random(); from
this take the first N many elements to meet your requirements.
hth
Jon
On 27 Aug, 21:42, Ivan Voras <ivoras@__fer.hr__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
Ivan Voras 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?
That's weird. random.randint(a,b) will be enough for most cases. Test
your system to see the distribution is uniform with something like:
----
import random
dist = {}
for z in xrange(100000):
u = random.randint(1,10)
try:
dist[u] = dist[u] + 1
except KeyError:
dist[u] = 1
print dist
----
On 2007-08-27, Jun-geun Park <ju**********@gmail.comwrote:
>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?
That's weird. random.randint(a,b) will be enough for most
cases. Test your system to see the distribution is uniform
with something like:
Except he wants a non-uniform distribution.
--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! I'm changing the
at CHANNEL ... But all I get
visi.com is commercials for "RONCO
MIRACLE BAMBOO STEAMERS"!
On Aug 27, 3:42 pm, Ivan Voras <ivoras@__fer.hr__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.
On 8/27/07, J. Cliff Dyer <jc*@sdf.lonestar.orgwrote:
Play with your log to get the range you want
Here you can get "true" random numbers (not pseudorandom, they claim
to use a quatum generaton (?)) by fetching them from: http://random.irb.hr/
They give you a python class t insert into your code, but you need to
register to use it (free).
I am not affiliated to them in any way, I just used it once to play
with it and it worked.
Best,
--
Sebastián Bassi (セバスティアン)
Diplomado en Ciencia y Tecnolog*a.
GPG Fingerprint: 9470 0980 620D ABFC BE63 A4A4 A3DE C97D 8422 D43D
Jun-geun Park wrote:
Ivan Voras 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?
That's weird. random.randint(a,b) will be enough for most cases. Test
your system to see the distribution is uniform with something like:
The distribution is uniform. However, he wants a way to get non-uniform sampling
of that list.
--
Robert Kern
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco
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 Sc***********@Acm.Org
Jun-geun Park wrote:
Ivan Voras 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?
That's weird. random.randint(a,b) will be enough for most cases. Test
your system to see the distribution is uniform with something like:
----
import random
dist = {}
for z in xrange(100000):
u = random.randint(1,10)
try:
dist[u] = dist[u] + 1
except KeyError:
dist[u] = 1
print dist
----
I understood the question wrong.(Thanks, Grant and Robert.) To get the
linear
distribution, you can start from the following:
a = (random.random() + random.random())/2.0 # Triangle distribution
in [0,1)
b = random.random() #
Uniform in [0,1)
c = b + (1-b)*a
# Convolution
u = int(100*(1-c)+1)
# ceil(100*(1-c))
, then, because convolution of a rectangle function and a triangle
function is a
linear function under the valid domain, u is a random integer in [1,100]
that follows (decreasing) linear distribution.
Alternatively if I were in your case, I would go with an exponential
random with
a suitable lambda(by cutting its tail.)
En Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:42:45 -0300, Ivan Voras <ivoras@__fer.hr__>
escribi�:
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?
Using a linear (or triangular) distribution:
--- begin ---
from random import randint
def biased_choice(values):
"""Choose a random element from values;
first elements are chosen more frequently than later ones.
Weights are linearly assigned; given n elements, the first
has weight n, second has n-1, ... last has weight 1.
"""
n = len(values)
sumw = ((n + 1) * n) // 2
x = randint(1, sumw)
F = 0
for i in xrange(1, n+1):
F += i
if x<=F: return values[-i]
# test
from collections import defaultdict
values = ["a", "b", "c", "d", "e"]
stats = defaultdict(int)
for i in xrange(150000):
stats[biased_choice(values)] += 1
for key in sorted(stats):
print key, stats[key]
--- end ---
Output:
a 50023
b 39869
c 30256
d 19784
e 10068
--
Gabriel Genellina
On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 22:42:45 +0200, 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?
If you really just want to tend towards the beginning of the list, and
don't care what the envelope looks like, how about this:
def biasedselection(thelist):
index = random.random() * random.random() * len(thelist)
# or index random.random() ** 2 * len(thelist)
return thelist[index]
Dan
--
Dan Sommers A death spiral goes clock-
<http://www.tombstonezero.net/dan/ wise north of the equator.
Atoms are not things. -- Werner Heisenberg -- Dilbert's PHB
On Aug 27, 4:42 pm, Ivan Voras <ivoras@__fer.hr__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?
Not sure how pythonic it is...but a simple(?) way to increase the
chances for particular
elements is to introduce copies. For example given [1,2,3], you can
increase the chances
of selecting '1' by changing the list to [1,1,2,3].
Cheers
Chris
Ivan Voras 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?
If you take the difference between two uniformly distributed random
variables, the probability density function forms an isosceles triangle
centered at 0. Take the absolute value of that variable and the pdf is a
straight line with maximum value at 0 tapering to 0 at max. Thus,
z = abs(randint(0, max) - randint(0, max))
ought to do the trick.
--
Jeffrey Barish
Jeffrey Barish wrote:
If you take the difference between two uniformly distributed random
variables, the probability density function forms an isosceles triangle
centered at 0. Take the absolute value of that variable and the pdf isa
straight line with maximum value at 0 tapering to 0 at max. Thus,
z = abs(randint(0, max) - randint(0, max))
ought to do the trick.
It's elegant :)
I've noticed something interesting in my test: the value 0 appears less
often than other values (which behave as they should). I wrote this test
script:
from random import randint
map = {}
for x in xrange(11):
map[x] = 0
for a in xrange(500):
x = abs(randint(0, 10) - randint(0, 10))
map[x] += 1
print map
and here are some results:
python a.py
{0: 49, 1: 66, 2: 72, 3: 73, 4: 64, 5: 55, 6: 40, 7: 36, 8: 18, 9: 18,
10: 9}
python a.py
{0: 34, 1: 90, 2: 77, 3: 61, 4: 56, 5: 52, 6: 42, 7: 34, 8: 27, 9: 15,
10: 12}
python a.py
{0: 33, 1: 80, 2: 84, 3: 62, 4: 52, 5: 46, 6: 51, 7: 31, 8: 35, 9: 16,
10: 10}
python a.py
{0: 50, 1: 100, 2: 69, 3: 53, 4: 63, 5: 47, 6: 41, 7: 26, 8: 30, 9: 11,
10: 10}
python a.py
{0: 31, 1: 84, 2: 70, 3: 70, 4: 74, 5: 50, 6: 38, 7: 28, 8: 31, 9: 15,
10: 9}
python a.py
{0: 43, 1: 101, 2: 79, 3: 66, 4: 41, 5: 59, 6: 37, 7: 30, 8: 26, 9: 15,
10: 3}
python a.py
{0: 44, 1: 108, 2: 74, 3: 50, 4: 53, 5: 54, 6: 39, 7: 34, 8: 28, 9: 13,
10: 3}
python a.py
{0: 42, 1: 72, 2: 70, 3: 72, 4: 61, 5: 54, 6: 41, 7: 36, 8: 30, 9: 15,
10: 7}
If I ignore the case when the delta is 0, it works fine, but I don't
understand why should the 0-case happen less often than others.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (MingW32)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
iD8DBQFG1yC5ldnAQVacBcgRAg6CAKCm4HB5AFHtwRgLHTgB4f cpgA3AsQCferjS
PHe06TZqYJoH/dybU7mIN9o=
=VIwB
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Aug 30, 3:55 pm, Ivan Voras <ivoras@__fer.hr__wrote:
I've noticed something interesting in my test: the value 0 appears less
often than other values (which behave as they should).
That's because the call to abs() usually collapses two values to one
(e.g. -2 and 2 both end up being 2),
but there's only one integer n for which abs(n) == 0.
One possible fix: do
x = randint(0, 10) - randint(0, 10)
x = abs(x) - (x<0)
This collapses -1 and 0 to 0, -2 and 1 to 1, etc.
Mark
Ivan Voras wrote:
Jeffrey Barish wrote:
>If you take the difference between two uniformly distributed random
variables, the probability density function forms an isosceles triangle
centered at 0. Take the absolute value of that variable and the pdf is a
straight line with maximum value at 0 tapering to 0 at max. Thus,
z = abs(randint(0, max) - randint(0, max))
ought to do the trick.
It's elegant :)
I've noticed something interesting in my test: the value 0 appears less
often than other values (which behave as they should).
The distribution of the difference (before the abs()) looks like this (max=4):
#
###
#####
#######
---0+++
321 123
Taking the absolute value doubles up the non-zero masses, but there's no
"negative 0" to add to the 0s stack.
#
#
###
###
####
####
0123
The method does not work because of that.
--
Robert Kern
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco
One possible fix: do
>
x = randint(0, 10) - randint(0, 10)
x = abs(x) - (x<0)
This collapses -1 and 0 to 0, -2 and 1 to 1, etc.
Or a slightly simpler formula that ends up producing the same
distribution:
x = min(randint(0, 10), randint(0, 10))
Mark
Robert Kern wrote:
Ivan Voras wrote:
>Jeffrey Barish wrote:
>>If you take the difference between two uniformly distributed random
variables, the probability density function forms an isosceles triangle
centered at 0. Take the absolute value of that variable and the pdf is
a
straight line with maximum value at 0 tapering to 0 at max. Thus,
z = abs(randint(0, max) - randint(0, max))
ought to do the trick.
It's elegant :)
I've noticed something interesting in my test: the value 0 appears less
often than other values (which behave as they should).
The distribution of the difference (before the abs()) looks like this
(max=4):
#
###
#####
#######
---0+++
321 123
Taking the absolute value doubles up the non-zero masses, but there's no
"negative 0" to add to the 0s stack.
#
#
###
###
####
####
0123
The method does not work because of that.
The math says that it works, so we must not be implementing it correctly. I
suspect that our mistake is quantizing the random variable first and then
taking the difference and absolute value. What result do you get when you
quantize once? That is, obtain two random values (floats) with uniform
pdf. Take the difference. Abs. Round to int. This way, everything in the
band from (-0.5, +0.5) goes to 0, and that's the highest part of the
triangle.
--
Jeffrey Barish
Mark Dickinson wrote:
That's because the call to abs() usually collapses two values to one
(e.g. -2 and 2 both end up being 2),
but there's only one integer n for which abs(n) == 0.
Ah. Need to sleep more.
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.2.5 (MingW32)
Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org
iD8DBQFG2EtmldnAQVacBcgRAj4kAJ9MHofb5nXj9E2nZ4AFi/zoj+MPYQCgn3ii
xpgzHsrFPztv/Ni7Jp3KuXA=
=MhAM
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Jeffrey Barish wrote:
Robert Kern wrote:
>Ivan Voras wrote:
>>Jeffrey Barish wrote:
If you take the difference between two uniformly distributed random
variables, the probability density function forms an isosceles triangle
centered at 0. Take the absolute value of that variable and the pdf is
a
straight line with maximum value at 0 tapering to 0 at max. Thus,
z = abs(randint(0, max) - randint(0, max))
ought to do the trick.
It's elegant :)
I've noticed something interesting in my test: the value 0 appears less
often than other values (which behave as they should).
The distribution of the difference (before the abs()) looks like this
(max=4):
#
###
#####
#######
---0+++
321 123
Taking the absolute value doubles up the non-zero masses, but there's no
"negative 0" to add to the 0s stack.
#
#
###
###
####
####
0123
The method does not work because of that.
The math says that it works, so we must not be implementing it correctly.
"The math" says nothing of the kind about the method that was stated.
I
suspect that our mistake is quantizing the random variable first and then
taking the difference and absolute value. What result do you get when you
quantize once? That is, obtain two random values (floats) with uniform
pdf. Take the difference. Abs. Round to int. This way, everything in the
band from (-0.5, +0.5) goes to 0, and that's the highest part of the
triangle.
That's a very different "it". The difference is not just implementation.
If you change "round" to "truncate", that method should work, though.
--
Robert Kern
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco
I'm sorry that I took the time to respond.
--
Jeffrey Barish
Jeffrey Barish wrote:
I'm sorry that I took the time to respond.
I'm sorry. I didn't intend my post to be as harsh as it was.
--
Robert Kern
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco This thread has been closed and replies have been disabled. Please start a new discussion. Similar topics
by: Paul Rubin |
last post by:
http://www.nightsong.com/phr/python/sharandom.c
This is intended to be less predicable/have fewer correlations than
the default Mersenne Twister or Wichmann-Hill generators. Comments
are...
|
by: Virus |
last post by:
Ok well what I am trying to do is have
1.) the background color to change randomly with 5 different colors.(change
on page load)
2,) 10 different quotes randomly fadeing in and out in random...
|
by: Johnny Snead |
last post by:
Hey guys,
Need help with this random sort algorithm
private void cmdQuestion_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
Random rnd = new Random(); //initialize rnd to new random object...
|
by: Marshall Belew |
last post by:
I'm trying to synchronize a network app that uses random numbers
generated by System.Random. Rather than pass every randomly generated
number, I just pass the seed. I'm seeing a result that leads...
|
by: Steven Macintyre |
last post by:
Hi all,
I need to retrieve an integer from within a range ... this works ... below
is my out puts ... it just does not seem so random ...
Is there perhaps a suggestion out there to create a...
|
by: FAQ server |
last post by:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
FAQ Topic - How do I generate a random integer from 1 to N?...
|
by: Daniel |
last post by:
Hey guys
Using Random(), how random is it, is it possible to be predicted? I have a
requirement for a very good random number generator. I was doing something
such as:
Random randomSeed = new...
|
by: Mike Langworthy |
last post by:
i can not seem to get this code to work. someone please help
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
class Program
{
|
by: Ken Fine |
last post by:
Hi there,
I have written a simple function that attempts to set the angle of objects
so as to place them in aesthetically appealing ways. The code follows; there
is some stupidness in it (e.g. a...
|
by: Charles Arthur |
last post by:
How do i turn on java script on a villaon, callus and itel keypad mobile phone
|
by: emmanuelkatto |
last post by:
Hi All, I am Emmanuel katto from Uganda. I want to ask what challenges you've faced while migrating a website to cloud.
Please let me know.
Thanks!
Emmanuel
|
by: BarryA |
last post by:
What are the essential steps and strategies outlined in the Data Structures and Algorithms (DSA) roadmap for aspiring data scientists? How can individuals effectively utilize this roadmap to progress...
|
by: Sonnysonu |
last post by:
This is the data of csv file
1 2 3
1 2 3
1 2 3
1 2 3
2 3
2 3
3
the lengths should be different i have to store the data by column-wise with in the specific length.
suppose the i have to...
|
by: Hystou |
last post by:
Most computers default to English, but sometimes we require a different language, especially when relocating. Forgot to request a specific language before your computer shipped? No problem! You can...
|
by: Oralloy |
last post by:
Hello folks,
I am unable to find appropriate documentation on the type promotion of bit-fields when using the generalised comparison operator "<=>".
The problem is that using the GNU compilers,...
|
by: jinu1996 |
last post by:
In today's digital age, having a compelling online presence is paramount for businesses aiming to thrive in a competitive landscape. At the heart of this digital strategy lies an intricately woven...
|
by: Hystou |
last post by:
Overview:
Windows 11 and 10 have less user interface control over operating system update behaviour than previous versions of Windows. In Windows 11 and 10, there is no way to turn off the Windows...
|
by: tracyyun |
last post by:
Dear forum friends,
With the development of smart home technology, a variety of wireless communication protocols have appeared on the market, such as Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. Each...
| |
