Select one element from a list using python following the normal distribution

Question

I would like to select one element from a list using python following the normal distribution. I have a list, e.g.,

alist = ['an', 'am', 'apple', 'cool', 'why']

For example, according to the probability density function (PDF) of normal distribution, the 3rd element in the given list should have the largest probability to be chosen.Any suggestions?

Answer 1

from random import normalvariate

def normal_choice(lst, mean=None, stddev=None):
    if mean is None:
        # if mean is not specified, use center of list
        mean = (len(lst) - 1) / 2

    if stddev is None:
        # if stddev is not specified, let list be -3 .. +3 standard deviations
        stddev = len(lst) / 6

    while True:
        index = int(normalvariate(mean, stddev) + 0.5)
        if 0 <= index < len(lst):
            return lst[index]

then

alist = ['an', 'am', 'apple', 'cool', 'why']
for _ in range(20):
    print(normal_choice(alist))

gives

why
an
cool
cool
cool
apple
cool
apple
am
am
apple
apple
apple
why
cool
cool
cool
am
am
apple