Random sample generator

Question

Any suggestion for random sample generation? I need to pick random 100 items from a large list every time I run it. I can do it by just comparing IDs of items and looping until count reaches a 100, but I am wondering if there are any built in features that can simplify this process.

I posted a solution for a similar problem (sample size unknown in advance), but it actually is a random sample generator and can be a solution to your question too: http://stackoverflow.com/a/30063866/694360 — mmj, May 05 '15 at 22:17

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 09 '12 at 18:51

5

You want random.sample(population, k).

Return a k length list of unique elements chosen from the population sequence. Used for random sampling without replacement.

answered Oct 09 '12 at 18:51

Bill the Lizard

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score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 09 '12 at 18:51

4

Use random.sample:

import random
x = range(10000)
y = random.sample(x, 100)

answered Oct 09 '12 at 18:51

nneonneo

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Random sample generator

2 Answers2