choosing random numbers with weights/probability?

[Evan Simpson]

In this simple case, you could use:

weighted = [0, 1, 2, 2]
item = list[whrandom.choice(weighted)]

If you really need arbitrary weights, try:

list = [('one', 0.25), ('two', 0.25), ('three', 0.5)]
def weighted_choice(list):
  from whrandom import uniform
  n = uniform(0, 1)
  for item, weight in list:
    if n < weight:
      break
    n = n - weight
  return item

kevinsl wrote in message <929987267.6227 at www.remarq.com>...
I've been using the whrandom.choice routine and it's very
useful. But is there any way to add weights or
probabilities of being chosen to the items in the list?

example:

list=['one','two','three']
item=whrandom.choice(list)

Is there any way to say that 'one' and 'two' have a 25%
chance of being chosen, and 'three' has a 50% chance?