Probability Trees
Previously, I tried to figure out how to make the probability monad more “listy”. I read a little more about the topic (especially Erwig and Kollmansberger 2006; and Kidd 2007).
I then thought about what a probability monad would look like if it was based on other data structures. I feel like the standard version really wants to be:
newtype ProperProb a = ProperProb
{ yes :: Map a (Product Rational) }But of course a monad instance isn’t allowed.
Similar to a map, though, is a binary tree:
data BinaryTree a = Leaf
| Node (BinaryTree a) a (BinaryTree a)And it feels better for probability - flatter, somehow. Transmuting it into a probability-thing:
data Odds a = Certain a
| Choice (Odds a) Rational (Odds a)
deriving (Eq, Functor, Foldable, Show)That looks good to me. A choice between two different branches feels more natural than a choice between a head and a tail.
The fold is similar to before, with an unfold for good measure:
foldOdds :: (b -> Rational -> b -> b) -> (a -> b) -> Odds a -> b
foldOdds f b = r where
r (Certain x) = b x
r (Choice xs p ys) = f (r xs) p (r ys)
unfoldOdds :: (b -> Either a (b,Rational,b)) -> b -> Odds a
unfoldOdds f = r where
r b = case f b of
Left a -> Certain a
Right (x,p,y) -> Choice (r x) p (r y)
fi :: Bool -> a -> a -> a
fi True t _ = t
fi False _ f = fI changed the pattern synonym a little:
unRatio :: Num a => Rational -> (a,a)
unRatio = numerator &&& denominator
>>> fromInteger *** fromInteger
pattern n :% d <- (unRatio -> (n,d))Then, the probOf
function:
probOf :: Eq a => a -> Odds a -> Rational
probOf e = foldOdds f b where
b x = fi (e == x) 1 0
f x (n:%d) y = (x * n + y * d) / (n + d)This version doesn’t have the option for short-circuiting on the first value it finds.
For generating from lists, you can try to evenly divide the list among each branch.
fromListOdds :: (([b], Int) -> Integer) -> (b -> a) -> [b] -> Maybe (Odds a)
fromListOdds fr e = r where
r [] = Nothing
r xs = Just (unfoldOdds f (xs, length xs))
f ([x],_) = Left (e x)
f (xs ,n) = Right ((ys,l), fr (ys,l) % fr (zs,r), (zs,r)) where
l = n `div` 2
r = n - l
(ys,zs) = splitAt l xs
equalOdds :: [a] -> Maybe (Odds a)
equalOdds = fromListOdds (fromIntegral . snd) id
fromDistrib :: [(a,Integer)] -> Maybe (Odds a)
fromDistrib = fromListOdds (sum . map snd . fst) fstWhat’s really nice about this version is the fact that the old append is just the Choice
constructor, leaving the instances to be really nice:
flatten :: Odds (Odds a) -> Odds a
flatten = foldOdds Choice id
instance Applicative Odds where
pure = Certain
fs <*> xs = flatten (fmap (<$> xs) fs)
instance Monad Odds where
x >>= f = flatten (f <$> x)Finally, as a bonus, to remove duplicates:
lcd :: Foldable f => f Rational -> Integer
lcd = foldl' (\a e -> lcm a (denominator e)) 1
toDistrib :: Odds a -> [(a,Integer)]
toDistrib = factorOut . foldOdds f b where
b x = [(x,1)]
f l p r = (map.fmap) (n%t*) l ++ (map.fmap) (d%t*) r where
n = numerator p
d = denominator p
t = n + d
factorOut xs = (map.fmap) (numerator . (lcd'*)) xs where
lcd' = fromIntegral . lcd . map snd $ xs
counts :: (Ord a, Num n) => [(a,n)] -> [(a,n)]
counts =
Map.assocs .
Map.fromListWith (+)
compress :: Ord a => Odds a -> Odds a
compress xs = let Just ys = (fromDistrib . counts . toDistrib) xs in ysAfter reading yet more on this, I found that the main issue with the monad is its performance. Two articles in particular: Larsen (2011), and Ścibior, Ghahramani, and Gordon (2015), refer to a GADT implementation of the monad which maximises laziness.