[R] Comparison of the amount of computation

[Petr Savicky]

On Thu, Apr 14, 2011 at 12:40:53AM -0700, helin_susam wrote:
> Hi Petr,
> 
> Your idea looks like logically. So, can we say this with your idea; the
> expected number of computation in unique(sample(...)) is fewer than
> sample(...). Because, the expected length is 63.39677 in unique case, while
> the expected length is 100 in non-unique case ?

Hi Helin:

The number of operations "in unique(sample(...))" sounds like
you mean the operations needed to compute unique(sample(...)).
Your previous question suggests that you mean something different,
namely to compare computing mean(data1) and mean(data2), when

  data1 <- sample(...)
  data2 <- unique(sample(...))

If you only want to confirm that the number of operations needed
to compute mean(data2) is on average smaller than the number of
operations needed to compute mean(data1), then yes, it is.

However, it is not a way to make some computation more efficient,
since mean(data2) is something different from mean(data1).

Petr.