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Jaroslav Hajek wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 12:29 PM, Jaroslav Hajek <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 12:02 PM, Alois Schlögl <[email protected]> 
>> wrote:
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>>> Jaroslav Hajek wrote:
>>>>> sumskipnan counts also the number of non-NaNs.
>>>>> [s,c]=sumskipnan(...)
>>>>>
>>>>> computing both s and c in a single step is beneficial for estimating
>>>>> mean, variance and other statistics.
>>>>>
>>>> well, you can do
>>>>
>>>> nans = isnan (x);
>>>> x(nans) = 0;
>>>> s = sum (x, dim);
>>>> c = size (x, dim) - sum (nans);
>>>>
>>>> Not exactly as fast as doing it all in a single loop, but simplistic.
>>> I guess, you meant
>>>    c = size (x, dim) - sum (nans,dim);
>>>
>>> In terms of simplicity,
>>>       [s,c]=sumskipnan(x,dim);
>>> will win.
>>>
>> Depends on what you count in. I wrote the first from top of my head,
>> whereas for the second I'd need to look up the syntax. But I don't
>> have any fundamental objections against the existence of sumskipnan,
>> of course.
>>
>>>>>> Besides, I think the fact that the NaN package shadows Octave's
>>>>>> built-in functions is very dangerous and confusing, even though I
>>>>>> understand the motivation. I think this package should not be
>>>>>> installed by default.
>>>>> Where do you see a danger ? Please explain.
>>>>>
>>>> It seems that sometimes users (especially windows users) get this
>>>> package unknowingly loaded. Not that this is your fault, just that it
>>>> probably shouldn't be on by default in distributions.
>>>>
>>>> The more painful issue is that it makes the package less attractive to
>>>> use - for instance, if I want to use the nanmean function to get
>>>> nan-free mean, but I *don't* want the built-in mean to be shadowed
>>>> (because the replacement is slower).
>>> Therefore, it would be nice to have a pre-compiled sumskipnan that
>>> limits the performance hit. And their is certainly room for further
>>> improvement.
>> I don't want to limit it. I just don't want it to be there. I would
>> like to be able to use *both* nanmean and the default mean at the same
>> time.
>>
>>>> OTOH, I admit sometimes it may be good to be able to just substitute
>>>> the default stats by nan-free ones.
>>>>
>>>> I think it would be better to split the package in two, say, "nan" and
>>>> "nan-shadow" that would separate the two uses, because right now I
>>>> need to manually edit "path" after the package is loaded if I don't
>>>> want the default funcs to be shadowed.
>>>
>>> I donot know how this should work. We have already two competing
>>> stats-packages, the default one and the NaN-toolbox. A third option
>>> would just increase the confusion. Personally, I'd prefer merging the
>>> advantages of both approaches in a single solution.
>>>
> 
> I now think about porting sumskipnan into the statistics package and
> reimplement the nansum etc. function using it. What do you think about
> it?


That's fine with me.


> 
> regards
> 
> --
> RNDr. Jaroslav Hajek
> computing expert & GNU Octave developer
> Aeronautical Research and Test Institute (VZLU)
> Prague, Czech Republic
> url: www.highegg.matfyz.cz

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