SSJ
V. 2.6.

Package umontreal.iro.lecuyer.probdist

This package contains a set of Java classes providing methods to compute mass, density, distribution, complementary distribution, and inverse distribution functions for some discrete and continuous probability distributions.

See:
          Description

Interface Summary
Distribution This interface should be implemented by all classes supporting discrete and continuous distributions.
 

Class Summary
AndersonDarlingDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Anderson-Darling distribution (see).
AndersonDarlingDistQuick Extends the class AndersonDarlingDist for the distribution (see).
BernoulliDist Extends the class DiscreteDistributionInt for the Bernoulli distribution with parameter p, where 0 <= p <= 1.
BetaDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the beta distribution with shape parameters α > 0 and β > 0, over the interval [a, b], where a < b.
BetaSymmetricalDist Specializes the class BetaDist to the case of a symmetrical beta distribution over the interval [0, 1], with shape parameters α = β.
BinomialDist Extends the class DiscreteDistributionInt for the binomial distribution with parameters n and p, where n is a positive integer and 0 <= p <= 1.
CauchyDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Cauchy distribution with location parameter α and scale parameter β > 0.
ChiDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the chi distribution with shape parameter v > 0, where the number of degrees of freedom v is a positive integer.
ChiSquareDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the chi-square distribution with n degrees of freedom, where n is a positive integer.
ChiSquareDistQuick Provides a variant of ChiSquareDist with faster but less accurate methods.
ChiSquareNoncentralDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the noncentral chi-square distribution with ν degrees of freedom and noncentrality parameter λ, where ν > 0 and λ > 0.
ConstantDist Represents a constant discrete distribution taking a single real value with probability 1.
ConstantIntDist Represents a constant discrete distribution taking a single integer value with probability 1.
ContinuousDistribution Classes implementing continuous distributions should inherit from this base class.
CramerVonMisesDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Cramér-von Mises distribution (see).
DiscreteDistribution This class implements discrete distributions over a finite set of real numbers (also over integers as a particular case).
DiscreteDistributionInt Classes implementing discrete distributions over the integers should inherit from this class.
DistributionFactory This class implements a string API for the package probdist.
EmpiricalDist Extends DiscreteDistribution to an empirical distribution function, based on the observations X(1),..., X(n) (sorted by increasing order).
ErlangDist Extends the class GammaDist for the special case of the Erlang distribution with shape parameter k > 0 and scale parameter λ > 0.
ExponentialDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the exponential distribution with mean 1/λ where λ > 0.
ExponentialDistFromMean Extends the ExponentialDist class with a constructor accepting as argument the mean 1/λ instead of the rate λ.
ExtremeValueDist Deprecated.
FatigueLifeDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the fatigue life distribution with location parameter μ, scale parameter β and shape parameter γ.
FisherFDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Fisher F distribution with n1 and n2 degrees of freedom, where n1 and n2 are positive integers.
FoldedNormalDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the folded normal distribution with parameters μ >=  0 and σ > 0.
FrechetDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Fréchet distribution, with location parameter δ, scale parameter β > 0, and shape parameter α > 0, where we use the notation z = (x - δ)/β.
GammaDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the gamma distribution with shape parameter α > 0 and scale parameter λ > 0.
GammaDistFromMoments Extends the GammaDist distribution with constructors accepting the mean μ and variance σ2 as arguments instead of a shape parameter α and a scale parameter λ.
GeometricDist Extends the class DiscreteDistributionInt for the geometric distribution with parameter p, where 0 < p < 1.
GumbelDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Gumbel distribution, with location parameter δ and scale parameter β≠ 0.
HalfNormalDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the half-normal distribution with parameters μ and σ > 0.
HyperbolicSecantDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the hyperbolic secant distribution with location parameter μ and scale parameter σ > 0.
HypergeometricDist Extends the class DiscreteDistributionInt for the hypergeometric distribution with k elements chosen among l, m being of one type, and l - m of the other.
HypoExponentialDist This class implements the hypoexponential distribution, also called the generalized Erlang distribution.
HypoExponentialDistEqual This class implements the hypoexponential distribution for the case of equidistant λi = (n + 1 - i)h.
HypoExponentialDistQuick This class is a subclass of HypoExponentialDist and also implements the hypoexponential distribution.
InverseDistFromDensity Implements a method for computing the inverse of an arbitrary continuous distribution function when only the probability density is known.
InverseGammaDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the inverse gamma distribution with shape parameter α > 0 and scale parameter β > 0.
InverseGaussianDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the inverse Gaussian distribution with location parameter μ > 0 and scale parameter λ > 0.
JohnsonSBDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Johnson SB distribution with shape parameters γ and δ > 0, location parameter ξ, and scale parameter λ > 0.
JohnsonSLDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Johnson SL distribution.
JohnsonSUDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Johnson SU distribution.
KolmogorovSmirnovDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Kolmogorov-Smirnov distribution with parameter n.
KolmogorovSmirnovDistQuick Extends the class KolmogorovSmirnovDist for the distribution.
KolmogorovSmirnovPlusDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Kolmogorov-Smirnov+ distribution (see).
LaplaceDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Laplace distribution.
LogarithmicDist Extends the class DiscreteDistributionInt for the logarithmic distribution.
LogisticDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the logistic distribution.
LoglogisticDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Log-Logistic distribution with shape parameter α > 0 and scale parameter β > 0.
LognormalDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the lognormal distribution.
LognormalDistFromMoments Extends the LognormalDist class with a constructor accepting the mean m and the variance v of the distribution as arguments.
NakagamiDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Nakagami distribution with location parameter a, scale parameter λ > 0 and shape parameter c > 0.
NegativeBinomialDist Extends the class DiscreteDistributionInt for the negative binomial distribution with real parameters n and p, where n > 0 and 0 <= p <= 1.
NormalDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the normal distribution (e.g.,).
NormalDistQuick A variant of the class NormalDist (for the normal distribution with mean μ and variance σ2).
NormalInverseGaussianDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the normal inverse gaussian distribution with location parameter μ, scale parameter δ > 0, tail heavyness α > 0, and asymmetry parameter β such that 0 <= | β| < α.
ParetoDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for a distribution from the Pareto family, with shape parameter α > 0 and location parameter β > 0.
PascalDist The Pascal distribution is a special case of the negative binomial distribution with parameters n and p, where n is a positive integer and 0 <= p <= 1.
Pearson5Dist Deprecated.
Pearson6Dist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Pearson type VI distribution with shape parameters α1 > 0 and α2 > 0, and scale parameter β > 0.
PiecewiseLinearEmpiricalDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for a piecewise-linear approximation of the empirical distribution function, based on the observations X(1),..., X(n) (sorted by increasing order), and defined as follows (e.g.,).
PoissonDist Extends the class DiscreteDistributionInt for the Poisson distribution with mean λ >=  0.
PowerDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the power distribution with shape parameter c > 0, over the interval [a, b], where a < b.
RayleighDist This class extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Rayleigh distribution with location parameter a, and scale parameter β > 0.
StudentDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Student t-distribution with n degrees of freedom, where n is a positive integer.
StudentDistQuick Extends the class StudentDist for the Student t-distribution.
TriangularDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the triangular distribution with domain [a, b] and mode (or shape parameter) m, where a <= m <= b.
TruncatedDist This container class takes an arbitrary continuous distribution and truncates it to an interval [a, b], where a and b can be finite or infinite.
UniformDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the uniform distribution over the interval [a, b].
UniformIntDist Extends the class DiscreteDistributionInt for the discrete uniform distribution over the range [i, j].
WatsonGDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Watson G distribution (see).
WatsonUDist Extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Watson U distribution (see).
WeibullDist This class extends the class ContinuousDistribution for the Weibull distribution with shape parameter α > 0, location parameter δ, and scale parameter λ > 0.
 

Package umontreal.iro.lecuyer.probdist Description

This package contains a set of Java classes providing methods to compute mass, density, distribution, complementary distribution, and inverse distribution functions for some discrete and continuous probability distributions. It also provides methods to estimate the parameters of some distributions from empirical data. It does not generate random variates; for that, see the package randvar. It is possible to plot the density or the cumulative probabilities of a distribution function either on screen, or in a LATEX file, but for this, one has to use the package charts.

Distributions

We recall that the distribution function of a continuous random variable X with density f over the real line is

F(x) = P[X <= x] = ∫-∞xf (s)ds

while that of a discrete random variable X with mass function p over a fixed set of real numbers x0 < x1 < x2 < ... is

F(x) = P[X <= x] = ∑xi <= xp(xi),

where p(xi) = P[X = xi]. For a discrete distribution over the set of integers, one has

F(x) = P[X <= x] = ∑s=-∞xp(s),

where p(s) = P[X = s].

We define bar(F), the complementary distribution function of X, by

bar(F)(x) = P[X >= x].

With this definition of bar(F), one has bar(F)(x) = 1 - F(x) for continuous distributions and bar(F)(x) = 1 - F(x - 1) for discrete distributions over the integers. This definition is non-standard for the discrete case: we have bar(F)(x) = P[X >= x] instead of bar(F)(x) = P[X > x] = 1 - F(x). We find it more convenient especially for computing p-values in goodness-of-fit tests.

The inverse distribution function is defined as

F-1(u) = inf{xR : F(x) >= u},

for 0 <= u <= 1. This function F-1 is often used, among other things, to generate the random variable X by inversion, by passing a U(0, 1) random variate as the value of u.

The package probdist offers two types of tools for computing p, f, F, bar(F), and F-1: static methods, for which no object needs to be created, and methods associated with distribution objects. Standard distributions are implemented each in their own class. Constructing an object from one of these classes can be convenient if F, bar(F), etc., has to be evaluated several times for the same distribution. In certain cases (for the Poisson distribution, for example), creating the distribution object would precompute tables that would speed up significantly all subsequent method calls for computing F, bar(F), etc. This trades memory, plus a one-time setup cost, for speed. In addition to the non-static methods, the distribution classes also provide static methods that do not require the creation of an object.

The distribution classes extend one of the (abstract) classes DiscreteDistribution and ContinuousDistribution (which both implement the interface Distribution) for discrete and continuous distributions over the real numbers, or DiscreteDistributionInt, for discrete distributions over the non-negative integers.

For example, the class PoissonDist extends DiscreteDistributionInt. Calling a static method from this class will compute the corresponding probability from scratch. Constructing a PoissonDist object, on the other hand, will precompute tables that contain the probability terms and the distribution function for a given parameter λ (the mean of the Poisson distribution). These tables will then be used whenever a method is called for the corresponding object. This second approach is recommended if some of F, bar(F), etc., has to be computed several times for the same parameter λ. As a rule of thumb, creating objects and using their methods is faster than just using static methods as soon as two or three calls are made, unless the parameters are large.

In fact, only the non-negligible probability terms (those that exceed the threshold DiscreteDistributionInt.EPSILON) are stored in the tables. For F and bar(F), a single table actually contains F(x) for F(x) <= 1/2 and 1 - F(x) for F(x) > 1/2. When the distribution parameters are so large that the tables would take too much space, these are not created and the methods automatically call their static equivalents instead of using tables.

Objects that implement the interface Distribution (and sometimes the abstract class ContinuousDistribution) are required by some methods in package randvar and also in classes GofStat and GofFormat of package gof.

Some of the classes also provide methods that compute parameter estimations of the corresponding distribution from a set of empirical observations, in most cases based on the maximum likelihood method.


SSJ
V. 2.6.

To submit a bug or ask questions, send an e-mail to Pierre L'Ecuyer.