Non-uniform random number generator

**scambret** · 03-20-2014, 06:09 PM

Let p1, p2, ..., p10 some positive real numbers with sum 1. p1 represents the probability of extracting from a ballot box the number 1, p2 represents the probability of extracting from a ballot box number 2 etc.. I have to build a random sequence that approximates the draw of these balls.

(example, if p1 = p2 = ... = p10 = 0.1) I have to create a sequence of numbers such as the one created from the function =randbetween(

Do you have any ideas?

**shg** · 03-20-2014, 06:23 PM

Lookup against the CDF:

	A	B	C
1	Num	Cumu
2	0.022	0.000	B2: =N(A1)+N(B1)
3	0.258	0.022
4	0.021	0.280
5	0.219	0.301
6	0.051	0.520
7	0.123	0.571
8	0.060	0.694
9	0.023	0.754
10	0.046	0.777
11	0.177	0.823
12
13	1		A13: =MATCH(RAND(), B2:B11)