Weighted random selection from array

Question

I would like to randomly select one element from an array, but each element has a known probability of selection.

All chances together (within the array) sums to 1.<

Answer 1

An example in ruby

#each element is associated with its probability
a = {1 => 0.25 ,2 => 0.5 ,3 => 0.2, 4 => 0.05}

#at some point, convert to ccumulative probability
acc = 0
a.each { |e,w| a[e] = acc+=w }

#to select an element, pick a random between 0 and 1 and find the first   
#cummulative probability that's greater than the random number
r = rand
selected = a.find{ |e,w| w>r }

p selected[0]