DataFrame of lists - picking multiple random items of list

Question

I have a DataFrame of lists and would like to pick 6 random items out of the list in a row, every picked item should be saved in the same row but in a different column.

DataFrame:

id  column_with_lists
1   ['10A','11B','12C','13D','14E','15F','16G','17H','18I']
2   ['34X','35Y','46Z','48A','49B','50C','51D']
3   ['232H', '23Q', '26W', '89D', '328A', '219C', '432G', '324A']

Desired result:

id  col     col1    col2     col3   col4    col5
1   '10A'   '14E'   '11B'   '18I'   '17H'   '13D'
2   '46Z'   '48A'   '49B'   '50C'   '51D'   '34X'
3   '232H'  '26W'   '89D'   '328A'  '432G'  '324A'

Edit: My DataFrame contains two columns, the first column ist the id and the second one the lists of ids column_with_lists. My goal is to get 6 random ids from the list within column_with_lists. Every picked id should be saved in the same row but different column of a dataframe

I was thinking about something like: ['col'] = df.apply( lambda x: random.sample( x['column_with_lists'], 1), axis=1) but for multiple columns.

Unfortunately not, I was thinking about something like: df['col'] = df.apply( lambda x: random.sample( x['column_with_lists'], 1), axis=1) but for multiple columns. — jonas
– jonas, Commented Feb 9, 2021 at 22:15

jonas · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-11 17:54:45Z

1

I solved my problem by converting my column_with_lists to a list and shuffling the items in the sublists. After that I concatenate it back to my DataFrame.

import random 

def shuffle_list(var):
    for i in var:
        random.shuffle(i)
    return var

col_list= [item[:6] for item in shuffle_list(col_list)]

edited Feb 11, 2021 at 17:54

answered Feb 10, 2021 at 15:09

jonas

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fingerbirdy · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-09 22:11:31Z

0

If your data is in multiple arrays, you could do something like this:

import random

data = {
    array1 = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g'],
    array2 = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g'],
    array3 = ['a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g']

output = {[],[],[]}

i = 0
for array in data:
    j = 0
    while j < 6:
        output[i].append(random.choice(array))
        j += 1
    i = 0

# POSSIBLE OUTPUT
output = {
    ['a', 'c', 'f', 'd', 'a', 'b'],
    ['g', 'a', 'b', 'f', 'g', 'c'],
    ['c', 'c', 'a', 'g', 'b', 'f']

If you do not want repeats, you can check if the value has been added to the output array and not add it if it is already there.

answered Feb 9, 2021 at 22:11

fingerbirdy

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