Generate Random Weighted value

Question

Edit: I\'ve rewritten the question in hopes that the goal is a little clearer.

This is an extended question to this question here, and I really like

Answer 1

I haven't tried it, but I think this might work:

$random($probability)
{
    $rnd = rand() / getrandmax();

    foreach($probability as $num => $prob)
    {
        $rnd -= $prob;
        if($rnd <=0)
            return $num;
    }

    return -1; //this should never happen
}

And call it like this (using your second example):

$distribution = array(
    1 => 0.10,
    2 => 0.15,
    3 => 0.30,
    4 => 0.27,
    5 => 0.14,
    6 => 0.04);

$number = random($distribution);