[R] A vector of normal distributed values with a sum-to-zero constraint

[Rui Barradas]

Hello,

One way is to use ?scale.

set.seed(4867)
l <- 1000000
aux <- rnorm(l, 0, 0.5)
aux <- scale(aux, scale = FALSE)
sum(aux)

hist(aux, prob = TRUE)
curve(dnorm(x, 0, 0.5), from = -2, to = 2, add = TRUE)

Hope this helps,

Rui Barradas

Em 01-04-2014 16:01, JLucke at ria.buffalo.edu escreveu:
> Then what's wrong with centering your initial values around the mean?
>
>
>
> Marc Marí Dell'Olmo <marceivissa at gmail.com>
> 04/01/2014 10:56 AM
>
> To
> Boris Steipe <boris.steipe at utoronto.ca>,
> cc
> JLucke at ria.buffalo.edu, "r-help at r-project.org" <r-help at r-project.org>
> Subject
> Re: [R] A vector of normal distributed values with a sum-to-zero
> constraint
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Boris is right. I need this vector to include as initial values of a
> MCMC process (with openbugs) and If I use this last approach sum(x)
> could be a large (or extreme) value and can cause problems.
>
> The other approach x <- c(x, -x) has the problem that only vectors
> with even values are obtained.
>
> Thank you!
>
>
> 2014-04-01 16:25 GMT+02:00 Boris Steipe <boris.steipe at utoronto.ca>:
>> But the result is not Normal. Consider:
>>
>> set.seed(112358)
>> N <- 100
>> x <- rnorm(N-1)
>> sum(x)
>>
>> [1] 1.759446   !!!
>>
>> i.e. you have an outlier at 1.7 sigma, and for larger N...
>>
>> set.seed(112358)
>> N <- 10000
>> x <- rnorm(N-1)
>> sum(x)
>> [1] -91.19731
>>
>> B.
>>
>>
>> On 2014-04-01, at 10:14 AM, JLucke at ria.buffalo.edu wrote:
>>
>>> The sum-to-zero constraint imposes a loss of one degree of freedom.  Of
>   N samples, only (N-1) can be random.   Thus the solution is
>>>> N <- 100
>>>> x <- rnorm(N-1)
>>>> x <- c(x, -sum(x))
>>>> sum(x)
>>> [1] -7.199102e-17
>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Boris Steipe <boris.steipe at utoronto.ca>
>>> Sent by: r-help-bounces at r-project.org
>>> 04/01/2014 09:29 AM
>>>
>>> To
>>> Marc Marí Dell'Olmo <marceivissa at gmail.com>,
>>> cc
>>> "r-help at r-project.org" <r-help at r-project.org>
>>> Subject
>>> Re: [R] A vector of normal distributed values with a sum-to-zero
> constraint
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Make a copy with opposite sign. This is Normal, symmetric, but no
> longer random.
>>>
>>>   set.seed(112358)
>>>   x <- rnorm(5000, 0, 0.5)
>>>   x <- c(x, -x)
>>>   sum(x)
>>>   hist(x)
>>>
>>> B.
>>>
>>> On 2014-04-01, at 8:56 AM, Marc Marí Dell'Olmo wrote:
>>>
>>>> Dear all,
>>>>
>>>> Anyone knows how to generate a vector of Normal distributed values
>>>> (for example N(0,0.5)), but with a sum-to-zero constraint??
>>>>
>>>> The sum would be exactly zero, without decimals.
>>>>
>>>> I made some attempts:
>>>>
>>>>> l <- 1000000
>>>>> aux <- rnorm(l,0,0.5)
>>>>> s <- sum(aux)/l
>>>>> aux2 <- aux-s
>>>>> sum(aux2)
>>>> [1] -0.000000000006131392
>>>>>
>>>>> aux[1]<- -sum(aux[2:l])
>>>>> sum(aux)
>>>> [1] -0.00000000000003530422
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> but the sum is not exactly zero and not all parameters are N(0,0.5)
>>>> distributed...
>>>>
>>>> Perhaps is obvious but I can't find the way to do it..
>>>>
>>>> Thank you very much!
>>>>
>>>> Marc
>>>>
>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>>>
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>
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>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>