how to get the index of numpy.random.choice? - python

Question

Is it possible to modify the numpy.random.choice function in order to make it return the index of the chosen element? Basically, I want to create a list and select elements randomly without replacement

import numpy as np >>> a = [1,4,1,3,3,2,1,4] >>> np.random.choice(a) >>> 4 >>> a >>> [1,4,1,3,3,2,1,4] 

a.remove(np.random.choice(a)) will remove the first element of the list with that value it encounters (a[1] in the example above), which may not be the chosen element (eg, a[7]).

Answer 1

Here's one way to find out the index of a randomly selected element:

import random # plain random module, not numpy's random.choice(list(enumerate(a)))[0] => 4      # just an example, index is 4 

Or you could retrieve the element and the index in a single step:

random.choice(list(enumerate(a))) => (1, 4) # just an example, index is 1 and element is 4