sample
- sample(population, k, *, counts=None)
Chooses k unique random elements from a population sequence.
Returns a new list containing elements from the population while
leaving the original population unchanged. The resulting list is
in selection order so that all sub-slices will also be valid random
samples. This allows raffle winners (the sample) to be partitioned
into grand prize and second place winners (the subslices).
Members of the population need not be hashable or unique. If the
population contains repeats, then each occurrence is a possible
selection in the sample.
Repeated elements can be specified one at a time or with the optional
counts parameter. For example:
sample(['red', 'blue'], counts=[4, 2], k=5)
is equivalent to:
sample(['red', 'red', 'red', 'red', 'blue', 'blue'], k=5)
To choose a sample from a range of integers, use range() for the
population argument. This is especially fast and space efficient
for sampling from a large population:
sample(range(10000000), 60)© Python Software Foundation. PSF License Version 2 · Official docs ↗
Changed in 3.9, 3.11
- 3.9: Added the counts parameter.
- 3.11: The population must be a sequence. Automatic conversion of sets to lists is no longer supported.
1 Example
>>> # Six roulette wheel spins (weighted sampling with replacement) >>> choices(['red', 'black', 'green'], [18, 18, 2], k=6) ['red', 'green', 'black', 'black', 'red', 'black'] >>> # Deal 20 cards without replacement from a deck >>> # of 52 playing cards, and determine the proportion of cards >>> # with a ten-value: ten, jack, queen, or king. >>> deal = sample(['tens', 'low cards'], counts=[16, 36], k=20) >>> deal.count('tens') / 20 0.15 >>> # Estimate the probability of getting 5 or more heads from 7 spins >>> # of a biased coin that settles on heads 60% of the time. >>> sum(binomialvariate(n=7, p=0.6) >= 5 for i in range(10_000)) / 10_000 0.4169 >>> # Probability of the median of 5 samples being in middle two quartiles >>> def trial(): ... return 2_500 <= sorted(choices(range(10_000), k=5))[2] < 7_500 ... >>> sum(trial() for i in range(10_000)) / 10_000 0.7958
from the Python docs