Weighted Random Number

[dunbarx at aol.com]

Hi.


Just fiddling around, I tried this in a button, with a field named "outputField". The "100" is arbitrary. This might weight too heavily towards the middle.



on mouseup
      put 100 into maxval
   repeat maxVal
   
      put weightTheMiddle(random(maxval),maxval/2) & return after accum 
   end repeat
   sort accum numeric
   put accum into fld "outPutField"
end mouseup


function weightTheMiddle var,tMiddle
   put trunc(tMiddle - var) into seed
   if seed = 0 then put 1 into seed
   put random(abs(seed)) into tFactor
   if seed < 0 then
      return var - tFactor
   else
      return var + tFactor
   end if
end weightTheMiddle



-----Original Message-----
From: Peter W A Wood <peterwawood at gmail.com>
To: How to use LiveCode <use-livecode at lists.runrev.com>
Sent: Sun, Mar 3, 2013 9:55 pm
Subject: Re: Weighted Random Number


Roger

A simple method might be:

	1. Select a random number between 25 and 200
	2. Select a random number between 25 and the random number selected in step 1.

This should result with the median of the numbers closer to 25 than 200. You 
could repeat step 3 again if you want to shift the median even nearer to 25.

It may not be mathematically correct but it does seem to offer the benefit of 
being easy to code :-)

Cheers

Peter

On 4 Mar 2013, at 10:14, Roger Guay wrote:

> Thanks, Scott. I'm not sure I follow what you're saying, so let me expand on 
what I'm trying to do: I want a number (25 to 200) of objects randomly 
positioned on the stack/window but favoring the center of the stack/window. 
Would your described method do this for me? Sorry for being slow...
> 
> Cheers,
> Roger
> 
> 
> On Mar 3, 2013, at 7:03 PM, Scott Rossi <scott at tactilemedia.com> wrote:
> 
>> There may be a better mathematical method, but I suppose I would start
>> with the loc of the screen and add some small random offsets to the loc.
>> Then at random times when the loc is calculated, I would add some major
>> offsets to the center loc.  In this way, the center loc is always favored.
>> Of course, I don't know how you're going about the calcs, so this may not
>> work for your situation.
>> 
>> Regards,
>> 
>> Scott Rossi
>> Creative Director
>> Tactile Media, UX Design
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On 3/3/13 5:46 PM, "Roger Guay" <irog at mac.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> I suspect this is easy, but I'm not coming up with anything. Can anyone
>>> tell me how to get weighted random numbers in LC? Say I want to position
>>> something on the screen randomly but favor the center of the screen. Any
>>> ideas?
>>> 
>>> Thanks,
>>> Roger
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