Get a random subset from a set in F#
Question
I am trying to think of an elegant way of getting a random subset from a set in F#
Any thoughts on this?
Perhaps this would work: say we have a set of 2x elements and we need to pick a subset of y elements. Then if we could generate an x sized bit random number that contains exactly y 2n powers we effectively have a random mask with y holes in it. We could keep generating new random numbers until we get the first one satisfying this constraint but is there a better way?
Solution
If you don't want to convert to an array you could do something like this. This is O(n*m) where m is the size of the set.
open System
let rnd = Random(0);
let set = Array.init 10 (fun i -> i) |> Set.of_array
let randomSubSet n set =
seq {
let i = set |> Set.to_seq |> Seq.nth (rnd.Next(set.Count))
yield i
yield! set |> Set.remove i
}
|> Seq.take n
|> Set.of_seq
let result = set |> randomSubSet 3
for x in result do
printfn "%A" x
OTHER TIPS
Agree with @JohannesRossel. There's an F# shuffle-an-array algorithm here you can modify suitably. Convert the Set into an array, and then loop until you've selected enough random elements for the new subset.
Not having a really good grasp of F# and what might be considered elegant there, you could just do a shuffle on the list of elements and select the first y. A Fisher-Yates shuffle even helps you in this respect as you also only need to shuffle y elements.
rnd must be out of subset function.
let rnd = new Random()
let rec subset xs =
let removeAt n xs = ( Seq.nth (n-1) xs, Seq.append (Seq.take (n-1) xs) (Seq.skip n xs) )
match xs with
| [] -> []
| _ -> let (rem, left) = removeAt (rnd.Next( List.length xs ) + 1) xs
let next = subset (List.of_seq left)
if rnd.Next(2) = 0 then rem :: next else next
Do you mean a random subset of any size?
For the case of a random subset of a specific size, there's a very elegant answer here:
Select N random elements from a List<T> in C#
Here it is in pseudocode:
RandomKSubset(list, k):
n = len(list)
needed = k
result = {}
for i = 0 to n:
if rand() < needed / (n-i)
push(list[i], result)
needed--
return result
Using Seq.fold to construct using lazy evaluation random sub-set:
let rnd = new Random()
let subset2 xs = let insertAt n xs x = Seq.concat [Seq.take n xs; seq [x]; Seq.skip n xs]
let randomInsert xs = insertAt (rnd.Next( (Seq.length xs) + 1 )) xs
xs |> Seq.fold randomInsert Seq.empty |> Seq.take (rnd.Next( Seq.length xs ) + 1)