SciPy

numpy.random.RandomState.logseries

RandomState.logseries(p, size=None)

Draw samples from a logarithmic series distribution.

Samples are drawn from a log series distribution with specified shape parameter, 0 < p < 1.

Parameters:

loc : float

scale : float > 0.

size : int or tuple of ints, optional

Output shape. If the given shape is, e.g., (m, n, k), then m * n * k samples are drawn. Default is None, in which case a single value is returned.

Returns:

samples : ndarray or scalar

where the values are all integers in [0, n].

See also

scipy.stats.distributions.logser
probability density function, distribution or cumulative density function, etc.

Notes

The probability density for the Log Series distribution is

P(k) = \frac{-p^k}{k \ln(1-p)},

where p = probability.

The log series distribution is frequently used to represent species richness and occurrence, first proposed by Fisher, Corbet, and Williams in 1943 [2]. It may also be used to model the numbers of occupants seen in cars [3].

References

[R166]Buzas, Martin A.; Culver, Stephen J., Understanding regional species diversity through the log series distribution of occurrences: BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH Diversity & Distributions, Volume 5, Number 5, September 1999 , pp. 187-195(9).
[R167]Fisher, R.A,, A.S. Corbet, and C.B. Williams. 1943. The relation between the number of species and the number of individuals in a random sample of an animal population. Journal of Animal Ecology, 12:42-58.
[R168]D. J. Hand, F. Daly, D. Lunn, E. Ostrowski, A Handbook of Small Data Sets, CRC Press, 1994.
[R169]Wikipedia, “Logarithmic-distribution”, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logarithmic-distribution

Examples

Draw samples from the distribution:

>>> a = .6
>>> s = np.random.logseries(a, 10000)
>>> count, bins, ignored = plt.hist(s)

# plot against distribution

>>> def logseries(k, p):
...     return -p**k/(k*log(1-p))
>>> plt.plot(bins, logseries(bins, a)*count.max()/
             logseries(bins, a).max(), 'r')
>>> plt.show()