Generate A Weighted Random Number

Question

I\'m trying to devise a (good) way to choose a random number from a range of possible numbers where each number in the range is given a weight. To put it simply: given the

Answer 1

here is the input and ratios : 0 (80%), 1(10%) , 2 (10%)

lets draw them out so its easy to visualize.

                0                       1        2
-------------------------------------________+++++++++

lets add up the total weight and call it TR for total ratio. so in this case 100. lets randomly get a number from (0-TR) or (0 to 100 in this case) . 100 being your weights total. Call it RN for random number.

so now we have TR as the total weight and RN as the random number between 0 and TR.

so lets imagine we picked a random # from 0 to 100. Say 21. so thats actually 21%.

WE MUST CONVERT/MATCH THIS TO OUR INPUT NUMBERS BUT HOW ?

lets loop over each weight (80, 10, 10) and keep the sum of the weights we already visit. the moment the sum of the weights we are looping over is greater then the random number RN (21 in this case), we stop the loop & return that element position.

double sum = 0;
int position = -1;
for(double weight : weight){
position ++;
sum = sum + weight;
if(sum > 21) //(80 > 21) so break on first pass
break;
}
//position will be 0 so we return array[0]--> 0

lets say the random number (between 0 and 100) is 83. Lets do it again:

double sum = 0;
int position = -1;
for(double weight : weight){
position ++;
sum = sum + weight;
if(sum > 83) //(90 > 83) so break
break;
}

//we did two passes in the loop so position is 1 so we return array[1]---> 1