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""" | |
Watch over a stream of numbers, incrementally learning their median. | |
Implemented via nested lists. New numbers are added to `lst[i]` and | |
when it fills up, it posts its median to `lst[i+1]`. Wen `lst[i+1]` | |
fills up, it posts the medians of its medians to `lst[i+2]`. Etc. | |
When a remedian is queried for the current median, it returns the | |
median of the last list with any numbers. | |
This approach is quite space efficient . E.g. four nested lists, | |
each with 64 items, require memory for 4*64 items yet can hold the | |
median of the median of the median of the median of over 17 million | |
numbers. | |
Example usage: | |
z=remedian() | |
for i in range(1000): | |
z + i | |
if not i % 100: | |
print(i, z.median()) | |
Based on [The Remedian:A Robust Averaging Method for Large Data | |
Sets](http://web.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/fmasci/home/astro_refs/Remedian.pdf). | |
by Peter J. Rousseeuw and Gilbert W. Bassett Jr. Journal of the | |
American Statistical Association March 1990, Vol. 85, No. 409, | |
Theory and Methods | |
The code [remedianeg.py](remedianeg.py) compares this rig to just | |
using Python's built-in sort then reporing the middle number. | |
Assuming lists of length 64 and use of pypy3: | |
- Remedian is getting nearly as fast (within 20%) as raw sort after 500 items; | |
- While at the same time, avoids having to store all the numbers in RAM; | |
- Further, remedian's computed median is within 1% (or less) of the medians found via Python's sort. | |
_____ | |
## Programmer's Guide | |
""" | |
# If `ordered` is `False`, do not sort `lst` | |
def median(lst,ordered=False): | |
assert lst,"median needs a non-empty list" | |
n = len(lst) | |
p = q = n//2 | |
if n < 3: | |
p,q = 0, n-1 | |
else: | |
lst = lst if ordered else sorted(lst) | |
if not n % 2: # for even-length lists, use mean of mid 2 nums | |
q = p -1 | |
return lst[p] if p==q else (lst[p]+lst[q])/2 | |
class remedian: | |
# Initialization | |
def __init__(i,inits=[], k=64, # after some experimentation, 64 works ok | |
about = None): | |
i.all,i.k = [],k | |
i.more,i._median=None,None | |
[i + x for x in inits] | |
# When full, push the median of current values to next list, then reset. | |
def __add__(i,x): | |
i._median = None | |
i.all.append(x) | |
if len(i.all) == i.k: | |
i.more = i.more or remedian(k=i.k) | |
i.more + i._medianPrim(i.all) | |
i.all = [] # reset | |
# If there is a next list, ask its median. Else, work it out locally. | |
def median(i): | |
return i.more.median() if i.more else i._medianPrim(i.all) | |
# Only recompute median if we do not know it already. | |
def _medianPrim(i,all): | |
if i._median == None: | |
i._median = median(all,ordered=False) | |
return i._median | |