To understand the correct answer, you need to understand the following:

> pbinom(1, 2, .5)
[1] 0.75

This is the binomial cumulative distribution function.
*** pbinom(0, 2, .5) = 0.25
*** pbinom(1, 2, .5) = 0.75 = 0.25 + 0.5
*** pbinom(2, 2, .5) = 1

However, pbinom(1e15, 2e15, .5) is a computational challenge. Standard numerical algorithms often fail in situations like this. The code should test for such cases and use more numerically stable "approximations" in place of the "exact" algorithms.

The standard deviation for a binomial is sqrt(p*(1-p)/n) = 0.5/sqrt(2e15), which is roughly 1e-8 in your case.


I get the following from both S-Plus and R:

> pbinom(1e5+c(-1, 0, 1), 2e5, .5)
[1] 0.4991079 0.5008921 0.5026762

For the problem you cite, the correct answer should be 0.5 to about 8 significant digits. Instead, I get 1 from R (as you did) and the following from S-Plus:

> pbinom(1e15,2e15,0.5)
[1] 0.7411209

Both give wrong answers without warning, though in this case, S-Plus is closer.

Answer the question?
Spencer Graves
#####################

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dear all

Just for fun, I have just downloaded the paper mentioned below and checked
it with R-1.6.1.
Everything is ok with exception of Table 2b, where I get always 1 instead of
0.5:

pbinom(1e15,2e15,0.5)
[1] 1

Which value should be correct?

Best regards
Christian Stratowa

==============================================
Christian Stratowa, PhD
Boehringer Ingelheim Austria
Dept NCE Lead Discovery - Bioinformatics
Dr. Boehringergasse 5-11
A-1121 Vienna, Austria
Tel.: ++43-1-80105-2470
Fax: ++43-1-80105-2683
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: [S] Exact p-values
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2003 18:31:38 +0100
From: "Rau, Roland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: 'Spencer Graves' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,	Jose Mar�a Fedriani
Laffitte <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
CC: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Dear all,

in relation to your question, the following working paper of Leo Knuesel,
University of Munich, might be of interest:
"On the Accuracy of Statistical Distributions in S-Plus for Windows
(1999)"
You can download the paper from (pdf-Format, 45k):
http://www.stat.uni-muenchen.de/~knuesel/elv/accuracy.html

Best,
Roland

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Spencer Graves [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent:	Thursday, February 13, 2003 6:12 PM
> To:	Jose Mar�a Fedriani Laffitte
> Cc:	[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject:	Re: [S] Exact p-values
>
>
> Try ( 1-pchisq(29.8, df=1)):  With S-Plus 6.1, I got  4.78992e-008.
>
>          By the way, the distribtion functions in R have more
arguments.
>  For example,  pchisq(29.8, df=1, lower.tail=F) produces the same
> answer, and pchisq(29.8, df=1, lower.tail=F, log=T) produces its
natural
> logarithm.  Also, pchisq, dchisq, qchisq, and rchisq in R all have an
> "ncp" noncentrality parameter argument;  only pchisq has such in S-Plus
> 6.1.  Similarly, none of the Student's t functions in S-Plus have a
> non-centralitity parameter;  in R, pt has an argument ncp, and from
this
> one can easily program ncp for dt, qt and rt.  Also, the distribution
> functions in the current release of S-Plus are known to have problems.
>  For example, pt(-1, Inf) = 0.5 in S-Plus 6.1, but 0.159 in R;
clearly,
> S-Plus gives a wrong answer without warning.
>
> Best Wishes,
> Spencer Graves
>
> Jose Mar�a Fedriani Laffitte wrote:
>
> >Dear all,
> >
> >    I want to get the exact p-values, on 1 degree of freedom, for an
> array
> >of chi-square values.  When my chi-square values are equal or lower
than
> >29.7, I get the exact associated p-values.  Thus, for instance:
> >
> >
> >
> >>pchisq(29.7, df=1)
> >>
> >>
> >[1] 0.9999999
> >
> >However, when my chi-square values are greater or equal to 29.8 what I
> get
> >is:
> >
> >
> >
> >>pchisq(29.8, df=1)
> >>
> >>
> >[1] 1
> >
> >
> >    Could anyone tell me how to fix this trivial issue?  Very
grateful,
> Jose
> >M. Fedriani
> >
> >****************************************
> >Jose M� Fedriani Laffitte
> >Estacion Biologica de Donana (CSIC)
> >Avda. M� Luisa s/n
> >41013-Sevilla
> >Spain
> >Tel. +34-954232340
> >Fax +34-954621125
> >http://ebd.csic.es
> >
> >--------------------------------------------------------------------
> >This message was distributed by [EMAIL PROTECTED]  To
> >...(s-news-request clipped)...

> >
> >
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> This message was distributed by [EMAIL PROTECTED]  To
> ...(s-news-request clipped)...

--------------------------------------------------------------------
This message was distributed by [EMAIL PROTECTED]  To
...(s-news-request clipped)...


______________________________________________
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
http://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
______________________________________________
[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list
http://www.stat.math.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help

Reply via email to