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Jorge updated ARROW-9937: ------------------------- Description: The current design of aggregates makes the calculation of the average incorrect. It also makes it impossible to compute the [geometric mean|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_mean], distinct sum, and other operations. The central issue is that Accumulator returns a `ScalarValue` during partial aggregations via {{get_value}}, but very often a `ScalarValue` is not sufficient information to perform the full aggregation. A simple example is the average of 5 numbers, x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, that are distributed in batches of 2, {[x1, x2], [x3, x4], [x5]}. Our current calculation performs partial means, {(x1+x2)/2, (x3+x4)/2, x5}, and then reduces them using another average, i.e. {{((x1+x2)/2 + (x3+x4)/2 + x5)/3}} which is not equal to {{(x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5)/5}}. I believe that our Accumulators need to pass more information from the partial aggregations to the final aggregation. We could consider taking an API equivalent to [spark](https://docs.databricks.com/spark/latest/spark-sql/udaf-scala.html), i.e. have an `update`, a `merge` and an `evaluate`. was: The current design of aggregates makes the calculation of the average incorrect. It also makes it impossible to compute the [geometric mean|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_mean], distinct sum, and other operations. The central issue is that Accumulator returns a `ScalarValue` during partial aggregations via {{get_value}}, but very often a `ScalarValue` is not sufficient information to perform the full aggregation. A simple example is the average of 5 numbers, x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, that are distributed in in batches of 2, {[x1, x2], [x3, x4], [x5]}. Our current calculation performs partial means, {(x1+x2)/2, (x3+x4)/2, x5}, and then reduces them using another average, i.e. {{((x1+x2)/2 + (x3+x4)/2 + x5)/3}} which is not equal to {{(x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5)/5}}. I believe that our Accumulators need to pass more information from the partial aggregations to the final aggregation. We could consider taking an API equivalent to [spark](https://docs.databricks.com/spark/latest/spark-sql/udaf-scala.html), i.e. have an `update`, a `merge` and an `evaluate`. > [Rust] [DataFusion] Average is not correct > ------------------------------------------ > > Key: ARROW-9937 > URL: https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/ARROW-9937 > Project: Apache Arrow > Issue Type: Bug > Components: Rust, Rust - DataFusion > Reporter: Jorge > Priority: Major > > The current design of aggregates makes the calculation of the average > incorrect. > It also makes it impossible to compute the [geometric > mean|https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geometric_mean], distinct sum, and other > operations. > The central issue is that Accumulator returns a `ScalarValue` during partial > aggregations via {{get_value}}, but very often a `ScalarValue` is not > sufficient information to perform the full aggregation. > A simple example is the average of 5 numbers, x1, x2, x3, x4, x5, that are > distributed in batches of 2, {[x1, x2], [x3, x4], [x5]}. Our current > calculation performs partial means, {(x1+x2)/2, (x3+x4)/2, x5}, and then > reduces them using another average, i.e. > {{((x1+x2)/2 + (x3+x4)/2 + x5)/3}} > which is not equal to {{(x1 + x2 + x3 + x4 + x5)/5}}. > I believe that our Accumulators need to pass more information from the > partial aggregations to the final aggregation. > We could consider taking an API equivalent to > [spark](https://docs.databricks.com/spark/latest/spark-sql/udaf-scala.html), > i.e. have an `update`, a `merge` and an `evaluate`. -- This message was sent by Atlassian Jira (v8.3.4#803005)