Join Random

The Join Random tool is designed to assist in the creation of random distributions of values, which can help in the creation of simulated data sets.

The tool accepts two inputs (Left and Right). It joins the two inputs together by choosing a random Right record to append to each Left record. Each Right record may optionally have a relative frequency value defined in one of its fields. All such frequency values taken together determine the frequency distribution of appended right records. If no frequency values are defined, all right records are assumed to be equally likely.

The right input should be small enough to fit easily into memory. There is no opportunity for renaming fields. Conflicting field names result in an error. Use an upstream Rename tool to avoid conflicts.

If you specify a frequency field, it should contain numbers whose value is >= 0.0. The value will determine the frequency with which a record is appended compare to all other records.  For example, suppose there are three right records with two fields VALUE and FREQUENCY:

The record with VALUE=AAA will be appended approximately once every eight records or 12.5% of the time.  BBB will be appended 25% of the time, and CCC will be appended 62.5% of the time.

Replicate tool configuration parameters

The Join Random tool has one configuration parameter in addition to the standard execution options:

Configure the Join Random tool

1. Select the Join Random tool, and then go to the Configuration tab on the Properties pane.

2. Optionally, select the Frequency field, the field on the right input containing the desired relative frequency of each record. 

3. Optionally, go to the Execution tab, and then set Web service options.