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https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MATH-984?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=13668469#comment-13668469
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Phil Steitz commented on MATH-984:
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Ack on the first issue (deviates should be constrained to come from the target
bin). Thanks for raising this issue. A workaround available since version 3.2
is to provide a custom kernel by subclassing and overriding
EmpiricalDistribution's getKernel method. Patches are welcome to fix the issue
with the current code. The private method, kB, can be used to get the mass of
a bin under its kernel. In 4.0, we may want to consider a more direct way to
plug in an alternative kernel.
Sorry if I am being dense, but I don't understand the second issue. If there
is no variation among values in a bin, returning their common value makes sense
to me.
> Incorrect (bugged) generating function getNextValue() in
> .random.EmpiricalDistribution
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Key: MATH-984
> URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/MATH-984
> Project: Commons Math
> Issue Type: Bug
> Affects Versions: 3.1.1
> Environment: all
> Reporter: Radoslav Tsvetkov
>
> The generating function getNextValue() in
> org.apache.commons.math3.random.EmpiricalDistribution
> will generate wrong values for all Distributions that are single tailed or
> limited. For example Data which are resembling Exponential or Lognormal
> distributions.
> The problem could be easily seen in code and tested.
> In last version code
> ...
> 490 return getKernel(stats).sample();
> ...
> it samples from Gaussian distribution to "smooth" in_the_bin. Obviously
> Gaussian Distribution is not limited and sometimes it does generates numbers
> outside the bin. In the case when it is the last bin it will generate wrong
> numbers.
> For example for empirical non-negative data it will generate negative rubbish.
> Additionally the proposed algorithm boldly returns only the mean value of
> the bin in case of one value! This last makes the generating function
> unusable for heavy tailed distributions with small number of values. (for
> example computer network traffic)
> On the last place usage of Gaussian soothing in the bin will change greatly
> some empirical distribution properties.
> The proposed method should be reworked to be applicable for real data which
> have often limited ranges. (either non-negative or both sides limited)
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