How can I get a weighted random pick from Python's Counter class?

Question

I have a program where I\'m keeping track of the success of various things using collections.Counter — each success of a thing increments the corr

Answer 1

The following will get a random item where the score is the weighting for how often to return that item.

import random

def get_random_item_weighted(scoreboard):    
    total_scoreboard_value = sum(scoreboard.values())

    item_loc = random.random() * total_scoreboard_value
    current_loc = 0
    for item, score in scoreboard.items():
        current_loc += score
        if current_loc > item_loc:
            return item

for instance, if there are 2 items:

item1 has a score 5
item2 has a score 10

item2 will be returned twice as often as item1