如果您的加权选项列表是相对静态的，并且您希望频繁采样，则可以执行一个O(N)预处理步骤，然后使用相关答案中的函数在O(1)中进行选择。

# run only when `choices` changes.
preprocessed_data = prep(weight for _,weight in choices)

# O(1) selection
value = choices[sample(preprocessed_data)][0]

将权重排列成a 累积分布。 使用random.random()来选择一个随机的 浮点0.0 <= x < total。 搜索 用等分法进行分布。二等分的 如http://docs.python.org/dev/library/bisect.html#other-examples中的示例所示。

from random import random
from bisect import bisect

def weighted_choice(choices):
    values, weights = zip(*choices)
    total = 0
    cum_weights = []
    for w in weights:
        total += w
        cum_weights.append(total)
    x = random() * total
    i = bisect(cum_weights, x)
    return values[i]

>>> weighted_choice([("WHITE",90), ("RED",8), ("GREEN",2)])
'WHITE'

如果需要做出多个选择，可以将其分成两个函数，一个用于构建累积权重，另一个用于对随机点进行等分。

另一种方法是，假设我们的权重与元素数组中的元素的下标相同。

import numpy as np
weights = [0.1, 0.3, 0.5] #weights for the item at index 0,1,2
# sum of weights should be <=1, you can also divide each weight by sum of all weights to standardise it to <=1 constraint.
trials = 1 #number of trials
num_item = 1 #number of items that can be picked in each trial
selected_item_arr = np.random.multinomial(num_item, weights, trials)
# gives number of times an item was selected at a particular index
# this assumes selection with replacement
# one possible output
# selected_item_arr
# array([[0, 0, 1]])
# say if trials = 5, the the possible output could be 
# selected_item_arr
# array([[1, 0, 0],
#   [0, 0, 1],
#   [0, 0, 1],
#   [0, 1, 0],
#   [0, 0, 1]])

现在我们假设，我们要在一次试验中抽取3个项目。你可以假设有三个球R、G、B大量存在，它们的权重由权重数组给定，可能的结果如下:

num_item = 3
trials = 1
selected_item_arr = np.random.multinomial(num_item, weights, trials)
# selected_item_arr can give output like :
# array([[1, 0, 2]])

您还可以将要选择的项目数量视为一组中二项/多项试验的数量。所以，上面的例子仍然可以作为工作

num_binomial_trial = 5
weights = [0.1,0.9] #say an unfair coin weights for H/T
num_experiment_set = 1
selected_item_arr = np.random.multinomial(num_binomial_trial, weights, num_experiment_set)
# possible output
# selected_item_arr
# array([[1, 4]])
# i.e H came 1 time and T came 4 times in 5 binomial trials. And one set contains 5 binomial trails.

我看了指向的其他线程，并在我的编码风格中提出了这种变化，这返回了用于计数的索引，但返回字符串很简单(注释返回替代):

import random
import bisect

try:
    range = xrange
except:
    pass

def weighted_choice(choices):
    total, cumulative = 0, []
    for c,w in choices:
        total += w
        cumulative.append((total, c))
    r = random.uniform(0, total)
    # return index
    return bisect.bisect(cumulative, (r,))
    # return item string
    #return choices[bisect.bisect(cumulative, (r,))][0]

# define choices and relative weights
choices = [("WHITE",90), ("RED",8), ("GREEN",2)]

tally = [0 for item in choices]

n = 100000
# tally up n weighted choices
for i in range(n):
    tally[weighted_choice(choices)] += 1

print([t/sum(tally)*100 for t in tally])

我可能已经来不及提供任何有用的东西了，但这里有一个简单，简短，非常有效的片段:

def choose_index(probabilies):
    cmf = probabilies[0]
    choice = random.random()
    for k in xrange(len(probabilies)):
        if choice <= cmf:
            return k
        else:
            cmf += probabilies[k+1]

不需要排序你的概率或用你的cmf创建一个向量，它一旦找到它的选择就会终止。内存:O(1)，时间:O(N)，平均运行时间~ N/2。

如果你有权重，只需添加一行:

def choose_index(weights):
    probabilities = weights / sum(weights)
    cmf = probabilies[0]
    choice = random.random()
    for k in xrange(len(probabilies)):
        if choice <= cmf:
            return k
        else:
            cmf += probabilies[k+1]

如果你碰巧有Python 3，并且害怕安装numpy或编写自己的循环，你可以这样做:

import itertools, bisect, random

def weighted_choice(choices):
   weights = list(zip(*choices))[1]
   return choices[bisect.bisect(list(itertools.accumulate(weights)),
                                random.uniform(0, sum(weights)))][0]

因为你可以用一袋管道适配器做任何东西!尽管……我必须承认，尼德的回答虽然稍长一些，但比较容易理解。