The Python Oracle

True or false output based on a probability

This video explains
True or false output based on a probability

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Music by Eric Matyas
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Track title: Puzzle Game 2 Looping

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Chapters
00:00 Question
00:36 Accepted answer (Score 129)
00:46 Answer 2 (Score 3)
01:15 Answer 3 (Score 1)
01:34 Answer 4 (Score 0)
01:59 Thank you

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Full question
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5886...

Answer 2 links:
[PyProbs]: https://pypi.org/project/pyprobs/

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Content licensed under CC BY-SA
https://meta.stackexchange.com/help/lice...

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Tags
#python #scientificcomputing

#avk47



ACCEPTED ANSWER

Score 145


import random

def decision(probability):
    return random.random() < probability



ANSWER 2

Score 3


Given a function rand that returns a number between 0 and 1, you can define decision like this:

bool decision(float probability)
{
   return rand()<probability;
}

Assuming that rand() returns a value in the range [0.0, 1.0) (so can output a 0.0, will never output a 1.0).




ANSWER 3

Score 1


Just use PyProbs library. It is very easy to use.

>>> from pyprobs import Probability as pr
>>> 
>>> # You can pass float (i.e. 0.5, 0.157), int (i.e. 1, 0) or str (i.e. '50%', '3/11')
>>> pr.prob(50/100)
False
>>> pr.prob(50/100, num=5)
[False, False, False, True, False]



ANSWER 4

Score 0


I use this to generate a random boolean in python with a probability:

from random import randint
n=8 # inverse of probability
rand_bool=randint(0,n*n-1)%n==0

so to expand that :

def rand_bool(prob):
    s=str(prob)
    p=s.index('.')
    d=10**(len(s)-p)
    return randint(0,d*d-1)%d<int(s[p+1:])

I came up with this myself but it seems to work.