Randomly selecting a word from a dictionary with a given probability

Question

I have a dictionary that has words and their probabilities of being selected as below:

dic = {'A': 0.2, 'B': 0.45, 'C': 0.35}

I want to randomly select 1 word based on its associated probability. So 'B' being selected would have highest probability. I've tried to use random.choice and random.choices but it isn't working. This is what I've tried:

next_word = random.choices(dic.keys(), weights=dic.values(), k=1)

I get TypeError: 'dict_keys' object is not subscriptable

Please suggest how I can do this.

"they don't seem to be the right option" is not the description of an error. Please make a clear problem description. — Mad Physicist, Sep 09 '21 at 13:40
Alright fixed language sir. And added explicit error message. — amnesic, Sep 09 '21 at 13:41
`dic.keys()` and `dic.values()` do not support indexing. You can convert them to lists. `list(dic.keys())` and `list(dic.values())` — 001, Sep 09 '21 at 13:42
Please read [ask]. Add a full traceback. Add details of other things you tried. — Mad Physicist, Sep 09 '21 at 13:43

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 09 '21 at 13:43

2

import random
dic = {'A': 0.2, 'B': 0.45, 'C': 0.35}
next_word = random.choices(list(dic.keys()), weights=list(dic.values()), k=1)
next_word

answered Sep 09 '21 at 13:43

Thomas Kimber

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Sep 09 '21 at 13:48

0

You are definitely on the right track. But you can do this to make it right:

next_word = random.choices(list(dic.keys()), weights=dic.values(), k=1)[0]

edited Sep 09 '21 at 13:48

Dharman

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answered Sep 09 '21 at 13:43

Coder Alpha

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Randomly selecting a word from a dictionary with a given probability

2 Answers2