[Rd] [R] RNG Cycle and Duplication (PR#12540)

[Shengqiao Li]

Professor Ripley,

Thank you for your solution.  So the last paragraph of the Note in RNG 
help page will be updated since Wichmann-Hill is different from other 
supplied uniform generators in the number of distinct values?

Shengqiao Li


On Fri, 15 Aug 2008, Prof Brian Ripley wrote:

> Remember Wichmann-Hill is a composite generator.  Its composition does take 
> more than 2^32 distinct values.
>
> You still haven't identifed a problem here.  The note is to warn that runif() 
> does repeat within a cycle, because people wrote code assuming otherwise.  It 
> would be a poor use of runif() to rely on the low-order bits, and that's 
> standard advice in the field.
>
> For a large sample of uniforms use something like the normal inversion does, 
> e.g. 2^(-30) * (runif(N, 0, 2^30) %% 2^30 + runif(N))
>
> Please do leave R-bugs out of this: we already have 4 entries as a result of 
> your misunderstandings and false claims.
>
> On Thu, 14 Aug 2008, shli at stat.wvu.edu wrote:
>
>>  This message is in MIME format.  The first part should be readable text,
>>  while the remaining parts are likely unreadable without MIME-aware tools.
>> 
>> ---559023410-851401618-1218751024=:15885
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>> 
>> I didn't describe the problem clearly. It's about the number of distinct=20
>> values. So just ignore cycle issue.
>> 
>> My tests were:
>> 
>> RNGkind(kind=3D"Knuth-TAOCP");
>> sum(duplicated(runif(1e7))); #return 46552
>> 
>> RNGkind(kind=3D"Knuth-TAOCP-2002");
>> sum(duplicated(runif(1e7))); #return 46415
>> 
>> #These collision frequency suggested there were 2^30 distinct values by=20
>> birthday problem.
>> 
>> 
>> RNGkind(kind=3D"Marsaglia-Multicarry");
>> sum(duplicated(runif(1e7))); #return 11682
>> 
>> RNGkind(kind=3D"Super-Duper");
>> sum(duplicated(runif(1e7))); #return 11542
>> 
>> RNGkind(kind=3D"Mersenne-Twister");
>> sum(duplicated(runif(1e7))); #return 11656
>> 
>> #These indicated there were 2^32 distinct values, which agrees with the=20
>> help info.
>> 
>> RNGkind(kind=3D"Wichmann-Hill");
>> sum(duplicated(runif(1e7))); #return 0
>> 
>> #So for this method, there should be more than 2^32 distinct values.
>> 
>> You may not get the exact numbers, but they should be close. So how to=20
>> explain above problem?
>> 
>> I need generate a large sample without any ties, it seems to me=20
>> "Wichmann-Hill" is only choice right now.
>> 
>> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
>> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>> Shengqiao Li
>> 
>> The Department of Statistics
>> PO Box 6330
>> West Virginia University
>> Morgantown, WV 26506-6330
>> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=
>> =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
>> 
>> On Thu, 14 Aug 2008, Peter Dalgaard wrote:
>> 
>>> Shengqiao Li wrote:
>>>> Hello all,
>>>> =20
>>>> I am generating large samples of random numbers. The RNG help page says:=
>> =20
>>>> "All the supplied uniform generators return 32-bit integer values that a=
>> re=20
>>>> converted to doubles, so they take at most 2^32 distinct values and long=
>> =20
>>>> runs will return duplicated values." But I find that the cycles are not =
>> the=20
>>>> same as the 32-bit integer.
>>>> =20
>>>> My test indicated that the cycles for Knuth's methods were 2^30 while=20
>>>> Wichmann-Hill's cycle was larger than 2^32! No numbers were duplicated i=
>> n=20
>>>> 10M numbers generated by runif using Wichmann-Hill. The other three meth=
>> ods=20
>>>> had cycle length of 2^32.
>>>> =20
>>>> So, anybody can explain this? And any improvement to the implementation =
>> can=20
>>>> be made to increase the cycle length like the Wichmann-Hill method?
>>>> =20
>>> What test? These are not simple linear congruential generators. Just beca=
>> use=20
>>> you get the same value twice, it doesn't mean that the sequence is repeat=
>> ing.=20
>>> Perhaps you should read the entire help page rather than just the note.
>>> 
>>> --=20
>>>  O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             =D8ster Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B
>>> c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     PO Box 2099, 1014 Cph. K
>>> (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph:  (+45) 35327918
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)              FAX: (+45) 35327907
>>> 
>>> 
>> ---559023410-851401618-1218751024=:15885--
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-devel at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
>> 
>
> -- 
> Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
> Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
> University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
> 1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
> Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595
>