I am simulating sickness among a group of families.  Part of the task is 
to randomly draw who in the family will be sick, randomly drawing from 
family ID's where Dad =1, Mom = 2, Kid1 = 3, Kid2 = 4., etc.  My census of 
Dads is of the form shown below. 

Dad_ID  Spouse (Y=1;N=0)                #Kids #People_Becoming_Sick
1               1                               0               1
2               0                               2               2
3               1                               0               2
4               1                               3               3
...

The end output needed is if 3 people in a family are to be sick, was it 
the dad and two kids, with random family ID's =  {1,3,4}, or the mom, dad, 
and one kid,  with random family ID's =  {2,1,4}, etc..  The complication 
is that length of the family ID's to choose from and the associated 
sampling probabilities -- changes with each family.   I could loop through 
the Dads, from i in 1:nrow(census), but is there a way I could vectorize 
sample() to get at the same objective? 

My attempts to use the apply-based functions have dead ended.  Other ideas 
to vectorize this problem are warmly welcomed.



Regards,
 
Stephen Collins, MPP | Analyst
Health & Benefits | Aon Consulting
200 East Randolph, Suite 900, Chicago, IL
Tel: 312-381-2578 | Fax: 312-381-0136
Email: stephen_collins@aon.com
 
Aon Consulting selected by the readers of Business Insurance as the “Best 
Employee Benefit Consulting Firm” in 2006, 2007, and 2008
 
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