Recent Posts

Nemo then wanted weighted random numbers, so this item has been added to this page. The following script selects a random element from a weight list of options... #!/bin/bash # Copyright (c) Michael Still 2002 # Released under the terms of the GNU GPL # In this case, Nemo wants to be able to specify a list of items, with # weights associated with them... # $1 is the list with weights, in the form: # "1 frog 2 banana 3 hamster" # Scary assumption number one, people hand me correctly formatted lists # Incidentally, this will break with numbers exist in the items I am handed # e.g. Banana42 will break this NUMBERS=`echo $1 | sed 's/[^0-9 ]//g'` WORDS=`echo $1 | sed 's/[0-9]//g'` WEIGHTED="" # Build the list of options, including the weights for NUM in $NUMBERS do WORD=`echo $WORDS | sed 's/ .*$//'` WORDS=`echo $WORDS | sed "s/^$WORD *//"` COUNT=0 while [ $COUNT -lt $NUM ] do WEIGHTED=`echo "$WEIGHTED $WORD"` COUNT=$(( $COUNT + 1 )) done done # Get the random number LOBOUND=1 HIBOUND=`echo $WEIGHTED | wc -w` RANDMAX=32767 BINUMBER=$(( $LOBOUND + ($HIBOUND * $RANDOM) / ($RANDMAX + 1) )) # Get the item -- I can't use…