What is the random.choices() method in Python?

Overview

The choices() method of the random module is used randomly select elements from a population with replacement. The population supplied to the method should not be empty. This method also allows us to specify the weight given to the possibility of randomly selecting every value. The given weights can also be cumulative weights. If no weights are given, then the selections are made with equal probability. The method throws an error if all the values in the weights list are zero.

Method signature

choices(population, weights=None, *, cum_weights=None, k=1)

Parameters

population: This is a mandatory parameter that can be a list, tuple, or string. It indicates the population from which random values will be picked.
weights: This parameter is an optional numeric type that indicates the relative weights for the randomly chosen elements from the population.
cum_weights: This parameter is an optional numeric type that indicates the cumulative weights for the randomly chosen elements from the population.
k: This parameter indicates the number of random values to pick from the population.

Note: The weights and cum_weights must be the same length as the population sequence. Specifying weights and cum_weights throws an error.

Return value

This method returns random values chosen from the population.

Example

import random
def pick_from_string_population():
    string = "edpresso"
    k = 5
    random_vals = random.choices(string, [5, 5, 3, 3, 2, 1, 4, 6], k=k)
    print("Using string as population")
    print("Population - " + string)
    print("Random values chosen from the population - ", random_vals)
def pick_from_list_population():
    lst = ["hi", "hello", "educative", "edpresso"]
    k = 10
    random_vals = random.choices(lst, [5, 1, 3, 2], k=k)
    print("Using list as population")
    print("Population - " , lst)
    print("Random values chosen from the population - ", random_vals)
if __name__ == "__main__":
    pick_from_string_population()
    print("---" * 8)
    pick_from_list_population()