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

the trick could be to sample an auxiliary array with elements repetitions which reflect the probability

Given the elements associated with their probability, as percentage:

h = {1 => 0.5, 2 => 0.3, 3 => 0.05, 4 => 0.05 }

auxiliary_array = h.inject([]){|memo,(k,v)| memo += Array.new((100*v).to_i,k) }   

ruby-1.9.3-p194 > auxiliary_array 
 => [1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1,                                 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4] 

auxiliary_array.sample

if you want to be as generic as possible, you need to calculate the multiplier based on the max number of fractional digits, and use it in the place of 100:

m = 10**h.values.collect{|e| e.to_s.split(".").last.size }.max