how to get the index of numpy.random.choice? - python

Question

Is it possible to modify the numpy.random.choice function in order to make it return the index of the chosen element? Basically, I want to create a list and select elements ran

Answer 1

Regarding your first question, you can work the other way around, randomly choose from the index of the array a and then fetch the value.

>>> a = [1,4,1,3,3,2,1,4]
>>> a = np.array(a)
>>> random.choice(arange(a.size))
6
>>> a[6]

But if you just need random sample without replacement, replace=False will do. Can't remember when it was firstly added to random.choice, might be 1.7.0. So if you are running very old numpy it may not work. Keep in mind the default is replace=True