Generate Array of Numbers that fit to a Probability Distribution in Ruby?

Question

Say I have 100 records, and I want to mock out the created_at date so it fits on some curve. Is there a library to do that, or what formula could I use? I thi

Answer 1

You can generate UNIX timestamps which are really just integers. First figure out when you want to start, for example now:

start = DateTime::now().to_time.to_i

Find out when the end of your interval should be (say 1 week later):

finish = (DateTime::now()+1.week).to_time.to_i

Ruby uses this algorithm to generate random numbers. It is almost uniform. Then generate random numbers between the two:

r = Random.new.rand(start..finish)

Then convert that back to a date:

d = Time.at(r)

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This looks promising as well: http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/files/rdoc/randist_rdoc.html

And this too: http://rb-gsl.rubyforge.org/files/rdoc/rng_rdoc.html