[R] generating random events (dd-mm-yyyy)

[Spencer Graves]

	  I can think of two possible solutions.  Both work on the fact that 
the Poisson distribution is the probability of x events in some span of 
time or space where the occurrence of any one event is independent of 
whether there are others in that same span of time or space.

	  First, have you considered just taking a random sample of the records 
you have?  If they are uniformly distribution throughout the time 
interval in question, that will give you what you want.

	  Second, if they are not uniformly distributed throughout the time 
interval in question then what about the following:

first <- as.POSIXct(strptime("2003/01/01", "%Y/%m/%d"))
last <- as.POSIXct(strptime("2005/12/31", "%Y/%m/%d"))
dt <- last-first

nSamples <- 5
set.seed(1)
(rDates <- first+
      runif(nSamples)*as.numeric(dt))
[1] "2003-01-01 00:04:50 Pacific Standard Time"
[2] "2003-01-01 00:06:47 Pacific Standard Time"
[3] "2003-01-01 00:10:27 Pacific Standard Time"
[4] "2003-01-01 00:16:34 Pacific Standard Time"
[5] "2003-01-01 00:03:40 Pacific Standard Time"
 >
	  hope this helps.
	  spencer graves
p.s.  Have you reviewed vignette('zoo')?  I found it very worthwhile, 
especially since edit(vignette('zoo')) [or Stangle(vignette('zoo')$file) 
  if you use ESS (Emacs Speaks Statistics)] will create a file 
containing the R commands described in the vignette;  this makes it very 
easy to execute the commands line by line, modify them in any way you 
want to help you test variants, etc.

Carsten Steinhoff wrote:

> Hi Jim,
>  
> that's not exactly what I search. In your solution a sequence of dates is
> generated and a poisson-frequency separatly. But I have to create for
> example a poisson distributed sequence. E.g.: January 2003 = 3 Events;
> February 2003 = 4 Events
>  
> 01.01.2003
> 02.01.2003
> 03.01.2003
> 01.02.2003
> 02.02.2003
> 03.02.2003
>  
> Because there can be more events than days in a month the "day" should be
> random.
>  
> Carsten.
> 
> 
>   _____  
> 
> Von: jim holtman [mailto:jholtman at gmail.com] 
> Gesendet: Montag, 27. März 2006 01:14
> An: Carsten Steinhoff
> Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Betreff: Re: [R] generating random events (dd-mm-yyyy)
> 
> 
> try this:
>  
> 
>>data.frame(dates = format(seq(ISOdate(2003,1,1), by='month', length=36),
> 
> +     format='%d.%m.%Y'), date=rpois(36,10))
>         dates date
> 1  01.01.2003   11
> 2  01.02.2003     8
> 3  01.03.2003    7
> 4  01.04.2003    7
> 5  01.05.2003    5
> 6  01.06.2003   12
> 7  01.07.2003    9
> 8  01.08.2003   12
> 9  01.09.2003   11
> .......
> 
>  
> On 3/26/06, Carsten Steinhoff <carsten.steinhoff at gmx.de> wrote: 
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I have to generate a couple of random datasets to validate an actuarial
> software.
> Each set has to contain at least two columns: (1) Date of the loss events 
> occurrence; (2) Severity of loss
> 
> I'm generating the dates on a monthly basis by, for example:
>        ts(matrix(rpois(36,10)), start=c(2003, 1), frequency=12).
>>From that output I generate dates "by hand", what is REALLY time consuming 
> :-(.
> 
> I think it should be possible to get a direct output in "real" dates
> (dd.mm.yyyy). The day of occurence doesn't matter,it can be chosen randomly,
> too. Important is only, that the MONTHLY simulated frequency follows the 
> chosen distribution.
> Any ideas?
> 
> Thank you very much,
> 
> Carsten
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list 
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide!
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> <http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html