Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat

Started by AngleWyrm, June 27, 2017, 02:17:20 AM

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AngleWyrm


Hat abstract data type
Imagine throwing a bunch of names into a hat, and then drawing one out at random.

// make a hat
Hat<String> myHat = new Hat<String>();

// put some names in it
myHat.Put("Alice");
myHat.Put("Bob");
myHat.Put("Clarise");

// draw a dozen names
for( int i=0; i<12; i++){
    Console.Write( " " + myHat.Get() );
}


Pretty sweet so far, but what if I want to add Daniel and give him more than one vote?
myHat.Put("Daniel", 4); // Daniel gets four chances



Then along came a spider... What if I already have a set of stuff all neat and tidy in an array? Maybe something like so:
String names[] = { "Amelia", "Bert", "Cherry", "Doug", "Erika" }

What I'd like to do is apply a probability distribution to that set without moving all that stuff around. For example, let's say a sort of bell curve like Amelia:1, Bert:3, Cherry:5, Doug:3, Erika:1.

// Making a probability distribution
Hat<int> myRandomIndexes = new Hat<int>();
myRandomIndexes.Put(0, 1);
myRandomIndexes.Put(1, 3);
myRandomIndexes.Put(2, 5);
myRandomIndexes.Put(3, 3);
myRandomIndexes.Put(4, 1);

// rolling the curvy dice against my pre-existing name set
Console.Writeline( names[ myRandomIndexes.Get() ] );
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AngleWyrm

#1

Update
What if I want to draw items out of a hat like cards from a deck, so that each one can only happen once?

// make a hat with some stuff in it
Hat<String> deckOfCards = new Hat<String>("Alpha", "Bravo", "Charlie", "Delta", "Foxtrot");

while( deckOfCards.HasContents() ){
    Console.Write( " " + deckOfCards.Pull() );
}

public interface IHat<Type>
{
void Put(Type item, uint chances);
Type Get();
Type Pull();
bool HasContents();
void Print();
void PrintNode(uint index);
}


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My 5-point rating system: Yay, Kay, Meh, Erm, Bleh