当向量长度为​​一时,R 中的 sample() 不可预测

sample() in R unpredictable when vector length is one

我正在尝试调试一个简短的程序,但在某些情况下,我在从矢量元素采样结束时得到了令人不安的结果。它发生在向量的元素保持下降到单个值的时候。

在特定情况下,我指的向量称为 remaining 并包含一个元素,即数字 2。我希望来自该向量的任何大小为 1 的采样都会顽固地 return 2,因为 2 是向量中唯一的元素,但事实并非如此:

Browse[2]> is.vector(remaining)
[1] TRUE
Browse[2]> sample(remaining,1)
[1] 2
Browse[2]> sample(remaining,1)
[1] 2
Browse[2]> sample(remaining,1)
[1] 1
Browse[2]> sample(x=remaining, size=1)
[1] 1
Browse[2]> sample(x=remaining, size=1)
[1] 2
Browse[2]> sample(x=remaining, size=1)
[1] 1
Browse[2]> sample(x=remaining, size=1)
[1] 1
Browse[2]> sample(x=remaining, size=1)
[1] 1

如您所见,有时 return 是 1 而其他一些是 2

我对函数有什么误解 sample()

来自help("sample")

If x has length 1, is numeric (in the sense of is.numeric) and x >= 1, sampling via sample takes place from 1:x.

所以,当你有 remaining = 2 时,sample(remaining) 就等同于 sample(x = 1:2)

更新

从评论中可以明显看出您也在寻找解决此问题的方法。这是三个提到的替代方案的基准比较:

library(microbenchmark)

# if remaining is of length one
remaining <- 2

microbenchmark(a = {if ( length(remaining) > 1 ) { sample(remaining) } else { remaining }},
               b = ifelse(length(remaining) > 1, sample(remaining), remaining),
               c = remaining[sample(length(remaining))])

Unit: nanoseconds
 expr  min   lq    mean median     uq   max neval cld
    a  349  489  625.12  628.0  663.5  3283   100 a  
    b 1536 1886 2240.58 2025.0 2165.5 13898   100  b 
    c 4051 4400 5193.41 4679.5 5064.0 38413   100   c

# If remaining is not of length one
remaining <- 1:10
microbenchmark(a = {if ( length(remaining) > 1 ) { sample(remaining) } else { remaining }},
               b = ifelse(length(remaining) > 1, sample(remaining), remaining),
               c = remaining[sample(length(remaining))])

Unit: microseconds
 expr    min      lq     mean median      uq    max neval cld
    a  5.238  5.7970  6.82703  6.251  6.9145 51.264   100  a 
    b 11.663 12.2920 13.14831 12.851 13.3745 34.851   100   b
    c  5.238  5.9715  6.57140  6.426  6.8450 14.667   100  a 

如果在 remaining 的长度 > 1 时更频繁地调用 sample(),并且 if() {} else {} 否则方法会更快。