[Gambas-user] Another Best Approach Question: Statistics over an array of objects

[Tobias Boege]

On Wed, 07 Aug 2013, Bruce wrote:
> I'm looking for good ideas again I'm afraid.
> 
> 
> I have an array of objects that can be best described as a set of
> categories with an associated value.  Something along the lines of 
> [Cat1:String, Cat2:String, Cat3:String, Value:Float].
> 
> The general idea is that the user would select one of the categories and
> then the project would calculate a set of statistics across that
> category.  For example the categories could be "Age", "Sex", "Height"
> and the Value may be, say, weight.
> 
> What I am trying to do is develop a generic module/class accepting the
> input array that will return another array of objects being the
> statistical analysis of the input array across the specified category.
> The statics are fairly basic (at this stage) being the average for each
> category, the sample standard deviation and the sample standard error.
> 
> Generally the input array length is reasonably short, ~30 to ~300 items.
> Also the category domains are demonstrably short, between 3 and ~10
> identities.
> 
> I could (and have done) use the database (postgresql) statistics
> functions and re-query the entire dataset given the user category
> selection.  However, the time to execute this is unacceptably slow (the
> full dataset is over 3,000,000 rows). Furthermore, I would have to
> devise a generic way to build the specific query required each time.
> 
> Another way could be to develop an interface to r or something but I am
> hesitant to embark on that path given my knowledge of stats libraries
> like that.
> 
> So, just looking for a "good idea".
> 

Sorry, I don't understand... You want to give a Variant[] to a class, like:

Public Sub btnGiveStats_Click()
  Dim hStats As Stats

  hStats = Stats.Give(["Age", "Sex", "Height", fWeight])
End

Right?

What is this array supposed to signify? On what data shall it operate? I
mean: is there a table of persons (with fields Age, Sex, Height, ...) and
the funtion shall count ... something? Is the "weight" used to weigh the
average figure?

Thinking about it further, I admit that I don't understand anything... at
all. :-)

Regards,
Tobi