Picking random element by user defined weights [duplicate]

Answer 1

I use this function in several PHP game engines:

 $currentTotal) {
            $bucket++;
        }
        else {
            break;
        }
    }

    return $bucket;
}

Usage

Suppose I have the user weights in an associative array where each string points to its weight:

$weighted_strings = array(
    "important string" => 100,
    "terrible string" => 10,
    "never string" => 0,
    // etc
);

If I wanted to pull a string based on weight, I'd do this:

$weights = array_values($weighted_strings);
$strings = array_keys($weighted_strings);
$index = getBucketFromWeights($weights);
$selectedString = $strings[$index];