Re:Algorithms Every Programmer Should Know: Reservoir Sampling
by csl on Friday March 06, 2015 @01:54PM
(#9158747)
> is it a common problem to have, not knowing the set size?
Yes. It could be as simple as receiving values from a Python generator (or equivalent mechanism in your favourite language), where you don't know the number of items beforehand (and querying for the length is either impossible or expensive).
In such a cases, using reservoir sampling is an elegant solution, because you're probably in a situation where you'll be iterating through all values anyway.
Yes. It could be as simple as receiving values from a Python generator (or equivalent mechanism in your favourite language), where you don't know the number of items beforehand (and querying for the length is either impossible or expensive).
In such a cases, using reservoir sampling is an elegant solution, because you're probably in a situation where you'll be iterating through all values anyway.