Let's say I have a list of objects (in Python) that looks something like this (contains an identifier and a ranking/weighting):
objects = [
("object_1", 0.50),
("object_2", 0.75),
("object_3", 0.25),
("object_4", 0.01),
("object_5", 0.99),
]
I would like to return this same objects array but in semi-randomised order of their weighting. That is, I don't always want to return:
[
("object_5", 0.99),
("object_2", 0.75),
("object_1", 0.50),
("object_3", 0.25),
("object_4", 0.01),
]
but would instead rather allow for some non-determinism so that, generally speaking, the returned array looks like the above but could also look like:
[
("object_5", 0.99),
("object_1", 0.50),
("object_2", 0.75),
("object_4", 0.01),
("object_3", 0.25),
]
EDIT: I think I'm asking a different question than this one because the ordering matters here; and in the other question the order doesn't matter (again, I think!).
If you are able to ensure that the weight values are always in between [0, 1), then the following code will work!
from random import random
def weighted_sample_without_replacement(
population: List[Tuple[Any, float]], weights: tuple
) -> List[Tuple[Any, float]]:
return sorted(population, key=lambda x: x[1] * random())
where population looks like:
[
("object_5", 0.99),
("object_2", 0.75),
("object_1", 0.50),
("object_3", 0.25),
("object_4", 0.01),
]
weights like:
(
0.99,
0.75,
0.50,
0.25,
0.01,
)