How to generate random numbers to satisfy a specific mean and median in python?

Question

I would like to generate n random numbers e.g., n=200, where the range of possible values is between 2 and 40 with a mean of 12 and median is 6.5.

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Answer 1

Ok, you're looking at the distribution which has no less than 4 parameters - two of those defining range and two responsible for required mean and median.

I could think about two possibilities from the top of my head:

1. Truncated normal distribution, look here for details. You have already range defined, and have to recover μ and σ from mean and median. It will require solving couple of nonlinear equation, but quite doable in python. Sampling could be done using https://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/generated/scipy.stats.truncnorm.html

2. 4-parameters Beta distribution, see here for details. Again, recovering α and β in Beta distribution from mean and median will require solving couple of non-linear equations. Knowing them sampling would be easy via https://docs.scipy.org/doc/numpy/reference/generated/numpy.random.beta.html

UPDATE

Here how you could do it for truncated normal going from mean to mu: Truncated normal with a given mean