JuliaRandom / JuliaRandom/RandomNumbers.jl

Conversion to Float

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Langage dominant
Julia
Étoiles
100
Forks
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Description

The "obvious" approach of converting to a float, then multiplying by a scale factor is slow, and has the potential to give an answer of `1.0`.

The easiest option is:

``` julia
import Base: significand_mask, exponent_one
f1(u::UInt64) = reinterpret(Float64, exponent_one(Float64) | significand_mask(Float64) & u) - 1.0
```

unfortunately this has the downside that the last bit will always be zero, so you only get 52 bits of randomness per float: see https://github.com/JuliaLang/julia/issues/16344.

A slightly more advanced option (based on [this proposal](http://stackoverflow.com/a/35351145/392585)) is:

``` julia
import Base: significand_mask, significand_bits, exponent_half
function f2(u::UInt64)
f = reinterpret(Float64, exponent_half(Float64) | 0x001f_ffff_ffff_ffff & u)
if (u >> significand_bits(Float64)) &1 == 1
f-= 0.5
end
f
end
```

This gets us 53 bits, but introduces a branch. There might be some clever stuff we can do here though.

Guide de contribution

Aucun guide de contribution indexé pour ce dépôt

Piste de recherche

Start with the current float-conversion approach described in the issue and compare the f1 and f2 alternatives, including the linked Julia issue about the lost last bit. The change is complete when conversion avoids producing 1.0 while preserving 53 bits of randomness without an unacceptable performance cost.

Rédigé par le modèle d'indexation à partir du texte de l'issue.

Évaluation

Stack technique
julia
Domaine
performance
Type d'issue
Refactorisation
Difficulté
4/5
Temps estimé
3-5 jours
Activité
À l'abandon
Clarté
Plutôt claire
Accessibilité débutants
35/100

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