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in reply to Finding a random position within a long string (Activeperl Build 822)

It seems to me that you can not have "random" and "equally distributed" without knowing the sampling size after the process. Random is one thing, handling a equal distribution randomly is a whole 'nother ball of wax.

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Re^2: Finding a random position within a long string (Activeperl Build 822)
by mwah (Hermit) on Oct 12, 2007 at 22:39 UTC
    snopal: you can not have "random" and "equally distributed" without knowing the sampling size after the process

    As I see this, if you take samples of length M = k * W (from
    the whole string of length W), then the mean ratio of the property
    in question ('?' to non '?') in each M-sample should approach the
    expected ratio R (e.g. 0.1), if the number of samples taken
    is large enough. (The variance of the property in equally sized
    M-samples shouldn't depend on their "position" within the whole ensemble.)

    But maybe I didn't understand your objection correctly?

    Regards

    mwa
[reply]

      By your statement, there is no distribution restriction "if the number of samples taken is large enough." By placing all 10% of your '?' at the beginning and doing a tremendous number of samples, your "data full of ?" or "data of no ?" should even out to 10%. You just have to take a large number of samples.

      Since neither the sample size, nor the number of samples is defined, it could just as easily be "one sample of ten percent plus one", the result of which would be that virtually every random solution would fail.

      This looks like homework. The level of sophistication of your request changed dramatically from the original problem statement to the response you gave me.

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