下面是Python 3.6标准库中包含的版本:

import itertools as _itertools
import bisect as _bisect

class Random36(random.Random):
    "Show the code included in the Python 3.6 version of the Random class"

    def choices(self, population, weights=None, *, cum_weights=None, k=1):
        """Return a k sized list of population elements chosen with replacement.

        If the relative weights or cumulative weights are not specified,
        the selections are made with equal probability.

        """
        random = self.random
        if cum_weights is None:
            if weights is None:
                _int = int
                total = len(population)
                return [population[_int(random() * total)] for i in range(k)]
            cum_weights = list(_itertools.accumulate(weights))
        elif weights is not None:
            raise TypeError('Cannot specify both weights and cumulative weights')
        if len(cum_weights) != len(population):
            raise ValueError('The number of weights does not match the population')
        bisect = _bisect.bisect
        total = cum_weights[-1]
        return [population[bisect(cum_weights, random() * total)] for i in range(k)]

来源:https://hg.python.org/cpython/file/tip/Lib/random.py l340

为random.choice()提供一个预先加权的列表:

解决方案和测试:

import random

options = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd']
weights = [1, 2, 5, 2]

weighted_options = [[opt]*wgt for opt, wgt in zip(options, weights)]
weighted_options = [opt for sublist in weighted_options for opt in sublist]
print(weighted_options)

# test

counts = {c: 0 for c in options}
for x in range(10000):
    counts[random.choice(weighted_options)] += 1

for opt, wgt in zip(options, weights):
    wgt_r = counts[opt] / 10000 * sum(weights)
    print(opt, counts[opt], wgt, wgt_r)

输出:

['a', 'b', 'b', 'c', 'c', 'c', 'c', 'c', 'd', 'd']
a 1025 1 1.025
b 1948 2 1.948
c 5019 5 5.019
d 2008 2 2.008

在Udacity免费课程AI for Robotics中，Sebastien Thurn对此进行了演讲。基本上，他用mod运算符%做了一个权重索引的圆形数组，将变量beta设为0，随机选择一个索引， for循环遍历N，其中N是指标的数量，在for循环中，首先按公式增加beta:

Beta = Beta +来自{0…2 * Weight_max}

然后在for循环中嵌套一个while循环per:

while w[index] < beta:
    beta = beta - w[index]
    index = index + 1

select p[index]

然后到下一个索引，根据概率(或课程中介绍的情况下的归一化概率)重新采样。

在Udacity上找到第8课，机器人人工智能的第21期视频，他正在讲粒子滤波器。

def weighted_choice(choices):
   total = sum(w for c, w in choices)
   r = random.uniform(0, total)
   upto = 0
   for c, w in choices:
      if upto + w >= r:
         return c
      upto += w
   assert False, "Shouldn't get here"

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。

使用numpy

def choice(items, weights):
    return items[np.argmin((np.cumsum(weights) / sum(weights)) < np.random.rand())]