Question

I am trying to generate random text using letter frequencies that I have obtained. First, I succeeded with the following code:

for i in range(450):
    outcome=random.random()
    if 0<outcome<0.06775:
        sys.stdout.write('a')
    if 0.06775<outcome<0.07920:
        sys.stdout.write('b')
    if 0.07920<outcome<0.098:
        sys.stdout.write('c')
    ....

This until the letter z and spacebar. This give me >50 lines of code and I want to get the same result using an array.

So far I have :

f_list = [0, 0.06775, 0.08242, 0.10199, 0.13522, 0.23703, 0.25514, 0.27324, 0.32793, 0.38483, 0.38577, 0.39278, 0.42999, 0.45023, 0.50728, 0.56756, 0.58256, 0.58391, 0.62924, 0.68509, 0.7616, 0.78481, 0.79229, 0.81161, 0.81251, 0.82718, 0.82773, 0.99998]
alphabet = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'j', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z', ' ']

import random
import sys

for i in range(25):
    outcome=random.random()
    if f_list[i]<outcome<f_list[i+1]:
        sys.stdout.write('alphabet[i]')

But it isn’t working properly, as the range seems now to relate to the array and not the number of iterations I want. The output is blank.

Answer 1

import random
import sys
import bisect

f_list = [0, 0.06775, 0.08242, 0.10199, 0.13522, 0.23703, 0.25514, 0.27324, 0.32793, 0.38483, 0.38577, 0.39278, 0.42999, 0.45023, 0.50728, 0.56756, 0.58256, 0.58391, 0.62924, 0.68509, 0.7616, 0.78481, 0.79229, 0.81161, 0.81251, 0.82718, 0.82773, 0.99998]
alphabet = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz '

for i in xrange(450):
    sys.stdout.write(alphabet[bisect.bisect(f_list, random.random()) - 1])

does the trick and returns (example):

l wefboethol gsplotfoh ua onpedefh dnolnairnioeiegehhecaworonnfmeuej dsiauhpbfttwcknal ateof ap cgbr sunnee leseaeeecltaiaur u oen vxntgsoio kdeniei ot df htr dcencrsrrfp bwelsuoaslrnr heh ee tpt oeejaldeatcto fi a u idimiadmgglral o m iaielbtnt es oe shlspudwdfrrsvol oo i tlwh d r i swhsnloai p swlooi wbe nn sshth nsawtnrqsud mtw diit pner r nitmah todf zcsehma hl e ros ctee toiouinn i hl hlonphioe nh gan ho heein itrgeylftn epaacrmanhe

alphabet can be defined as a simple string too (accessing its elements – single characters – works like for lists)

bisect.bisect(list, value) takes a sorted list and a value and tells where this value should be put between. More about bisect.