generate random integers between two values with a given probability using R

Question

I have the following four number sets:

A=[1,207];
B=[208,386];
C=[387,486];
D=[487,586].

I need to generate 20000 random numbers between 1 and 586 in which the probability that the generated number belongs to A is 1/2 and to B,C,D is 1/6.

in which way I can do this using R?

Answer 1

You can directly use sample, more specifcally the probs argument. Just divide the probability over all the 586 numbers. Category A get's 0.5/207 weight each, etc.

A <- 1:207
B <- 208:386
C <- 387:486
D <- 487:586
L <- sapply(list(A, B, C, D), length)

x <- sample(c(A, B, C, D),
            size = 20000,
            prob = rep(c(1/2, 1/6, 1/6, 1/6) / L, L),
            replace = TRUE)