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pythonlistrandomdistribution

Generate a random number 10% of the time, otherwise generate 0

In Python I would like to create a distribution that picks a random number between 5 and 10, 10% of the time. The other 90% of the time, I would like it to pick zero.

I would like to sample 10,000 numbers.

Solution

  • You can use numpy.random.choice:

    import numpy as np

nums = list(range(5, 10+1))
# [5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]

out = np.random.choice([0]+nums, p=[.9]+[.1/len(nums)]*len(nums), size=10000).tolist()

    distribution of values:

    enter image description here

    alternative

    Other approach, if you want exactly 90% of 0 and the rest divided in exactly the same number of each value and the order needs to be random:

    nums = list(range(5, 10+1))
out = nums*1000+[0]*9000

import random 
random.shuffle(out)