Weighted "random" selection from list of lists

[Ron Adam]

Jesse Noller wrote:


> 60% from list 1 (main_list[0])
> 30% from list 2 (main_list[1])
> 10% from list 3 (main_list[2])
> 
> I know how to pull a random sequence (using random()) from the lists,
> but I'm not sure how to pick it with the desired percentages.
> 
> Any help is appreciated, thanks
> 
> -jesse

Just add up the total of all lists.

     total = len(list1)+len(list2)+len(list3)
     n1 = .60 * total    # number from list 1
     n2 = .30 * total    # number from list 2
     n3 = .10 * total    # number from list 3

You'll need to decide how to handle when a list has too few items in it.

Cheers,
Ron