Abstract
Consider a distribution as an abstract data type that represents a probability distribution f on a finite set and supports a generate operation, which returns a random value distributed according to f and independent of the values returned by previous calls. We study the implementation of dynamic distributions, which additionally support changes to the probability distribution through update operations, and show how to realize distributions on {1,..., n} with constant expected generate time, constant update time, O(n) space, and O(n) initialization time. We also consider generalized distributions, whose values need not sum to 1, and obtain similar results.
Supported by the ESPRIT Basic Research Actions Program of the EC under contract No. 7141 (project ALCOM II). The research was carried out in part while the first author was with the Departament de LSI of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, and in part while the third author was visiting the MPI für Informatik.
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Hagerup, T., Mehlhorn, K., Munro, J.I. (1993). Maintaining discrete probability distributions optimally. In: Lingas, A., Karlsson, R., Carlsson, S. (eds) Automata, Languages and Programming. ICALP 1993. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 700. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56939-1_77
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-56939-1_77
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