Skip to content

Simplify iterative programming

3 messages · Stefaan Lhermitte, Kristel Joossens, Dimitris Rizopoulos

#
Dear,

I am looking for the simplification of a formula to improve the
calculation speed of my program. Therefore I want to simplify the
following formula:

H = sum{i=0..n-1 ,  [ sum {j=0..m-1 ,  sqrt ( (Ai - Bj)^2 + (Ci -
Dj)^2) }  ]  }

where:
A, C = two vectors (with numerical data) of length n
B, D = two vectors (with numerical data) of length m
sqrt = square root
Ai = element of A with index i
Bj = element of B with index j
Ci = element of C with index i
Dj = element of C with index j

I am calculating H in a merging process so A, B will merge in step 2
into A' and C, D into C':
A' = {A,B} : vector of length (n+m)
C' = {C,D} : vector of length (n+m)

Then again I will calculate H with two new vectors X and Y (of length
p):
H = sum{i=0..n+m-1 ,  [ sum {j=0..p-1 ,  sqrt ( (A'i - Xj)^2 + (C'i -
Yj)^2) }  ]  }

These steps are iterated in a loop with always new vectors (e.g. X and
Y)

Now I'am looking for a simplication of H in order to avoid long
calculation time.
I know a computional simplified formula exists for the standard
deviation (sd) that is much easier in iterative programming. Therefore
I wondered I anybody knew about analog simplifications to simplify H:

sd = sqrt [ sum{i=0..n-1, (Xi - mean(X) )^2 ) /n } ]  -> simplified
computation
-> sqrt [  (n *  sum{i=0..n-1,  X^2 } ) - ( sum{i=0..n-1,  X } ^2 ) /
n^2 ]

This simplied formula is much easier in iterative programming, since I
don't have to keep every element of X .

For example if we want to calculate sd of A' with the vectors A and C:
sd(A')
= sqrt [  ((n+m) *  sum{i=0..n+m-1,  A'^2 } ) - ( sum{i=0..n+m-1,  A' }
^2 ) /  (n+m)^2 ]
= sqrt [  ((n+m)*  (sum{i=0..n,  A^2 } + sum{i=0..m,  C^2 } ) )
     - ( ( sum{i=0..n-1,  A } + sum{i=0..m-1,  C } )^2 ) /  (n+m)^2 ]

The advantage of this formula is, that I don't have to keep every value
of A and C to calculate sd(A'). I can do the following replacements:
sum{i=0..n,  A^2 } = A2
sum{i=0..m,  C^2 } = C2
sum{i=0..n-1,  A } = A3
sum{i=0..m-1,  C } = C3

So sd(A')=
  sqrt [  ( (n+m)*(A2+ C2) )  - ( (A3 + C3)^2 ) /  (n+m)^2 ]

In this way my computation intensive calculation is replaced by a
calculation of simple numbers.

Can anybody help me to do something comparable for H? Any other help to
calculate H easily in an iterative process is also welcome!

Kind regards,
Stef

Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm
#
Hello Stefaan,

I'm not an expert, but maybe something like this is quite 
straightforward withourtusing for-loops? (It is an idea I wrote down, 
but check of course if this is correct!)

term1 =(matrix(A,ncol=m,nrow=n)-matrix(B,ncol=m,nrow=n,byrow=TRUE))^2
term2 =(matrix(C,ncol=m,nrow=n)-matrix(D,ncol=m,nrow=n,byrow=TRUE))^2
H = sum(sqrt(term1+term2))

Kind regards,
Kristel
Stefaan Lhermitte wrote:

  
    
#
you could consider something like:

H <- sum(sqrt(outer(A, B, "-")^2 + outer(C, D, "-")^2))


I hope it helps.

Best,
Dimitris

----
Dimitris Rizopoulos
Ph.D. Student
Biostatistical Centre
School of Public Health
Catholic University of Leuven

Address: Kapucijnenvoer 35, Leuven, Belgium
Tel: +32/(0)16/336899
Fax: +32/(0)16/337015
Web: http://www.med.kuleuven.be/biostat/
     http://www.student.kuleuven.be/~m0390867/dimitris.htm


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stefaan Lhermitte" <stefaan.lhermitte at biw.kuleuven.be>
To: <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
Sent: Friday, November 04, 2005 10:28 AM
Subject: [R] Simplify iterative programming
Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm