[Rd] Incorrect behavior of ks.test and psmirnov functions with exact=TRUE

[Alexey Sergushichev]

HI,

I've noticed what I think is an incorrect behavior of stats::psmirnov
function and consequently of ks.test when run in an exact mode.

For example:
psmirnov(1, sizes=c(50, 50), z=1:100, two.sided = FALSE, lower.tail = F,
exact=TRUE)

produces 2.775558e-15

However, the exact value should be 1/combination(100, 50), which is
9.9e-30. While the absolute error is small, the relative error is huge, and
it is not fixed by setting option log.p=T

To compare, SciPy has a correct implementation in scipy.stats.ks_2samp:
scipy.stats.ks_2samp(list(range(1,51)), list(range(51, 101)),
alternative="greater", method="exact")
returns 9.911653021418333e-30.

I've tried to dig in a bit and the problem comes down to how the final
value is calculated in psmirnov function:

    if (log.p & !lower.tail)
        return(log1p(-ret/exp(logdenom)))
    if (!log.p & !lower.tail)
        return(1 - ret/exp(logdenom))

There exp(logdenom) is a relatively good (but not perfect) approximation of
combination(100, 50) = 1.008913e+29, ret is also a good approximation of
combination(100, 50)-1 = 1.008913e+29 but there is not enough double
precision for 1 - ret/exp(logdenom) to capture 1/combination(100, 50).

I don't have time to provide a fix, at least not now, but I think this
behavior (good absolute error, but poor relative error for small values)
should at least be mentioned in the manual of the methods psmirnov and/or
ks.test

Best,
Alexey Sergushichev

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