Talk:Approximate counting algorithm

Coin tossing
Is it really necessary to toss the coin N times for a counter with value N on every event just to see if they're all heads? Couldn't we stop as soon as a tail is observed? -- Ralph Corderoy (talk) 08:28, 6 July 2011 (UTC)
 * No, you could have multiple tails. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 16:52, 17 October 2018 (UTC).

Actually you don't need multiple tosses at all. Simply generate a random number and take it modulo 2^V, where V is the current value. If the modulo is 0, then increment the counter. --CAFxX (talk) 15:14, 4 January 2012 (UTC)


 * This would be true if you knew the value. The point is that you don't, you only have the previous approximation, and knowledge that another instance has occured.  Certainly if you have a run of X you might be able to optimise. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 16:52, 17 October 2018 (UTC).

Recent developments
Developments like the HyperLogLog algorithm (see highscalability.com) should perhaps be included. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Herojoker (talk • contribs) 22:42, 26 August 2012 (UTC) http://blog.notdot.net/2012/09/Dam-Cool-Algorithms-Cardinality-Estimation <=  This is a great description of the algorithm  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.252.71.4 (talk) 23:24, 22 January 2013 (UTC)

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