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Posted to dev@datasketches.apache.org by "jaideeppyne (via GitHub)" <gi...@apache.org> on 2026/08/31 07:53:43 UTC
[PR] Fix swapped interpolation weights and right tail sign in tdigest Quantile [datasketches-go]
jaideeppyne opened a new pull request, #171:
URL: https://github.com/apache/datasketches-go/pull/171
Two spots in `tdigest.Double.Quantile` differ from the reference implementation ([MergingDigest](https://github.com/tdunning/t-digest/blob/main/core/src/main/java/com/tdunning/math/stats/MergingDigest.java)). The first affects ordinary use, the second needs a decoded sketch.
### The interpolation weights are passed in the wrong order
Reference:
```java
double z1 = index - weightSoFar - leftUnit;
double z2 = weightSoFar + dw - index - rightUnit;
return weightedAverage(mean[i], z2, mean[i + 1], z1);
```
We compute the same two quantities as `w1`/`w2` and then call `weightedAverage(d.centroids[i].mean, w1, d.centroids[i+1].mean, w2)`. The weight on `mean[i]` should be the distance to the far end of the bracket, not the near one. As the rank rises inside a bracket the estimate moves toward the lower centroid instead of the upper one.
That makes `Quantile` non-monotonic from a plain `Update` sequence. 2000 of 2000 random digests return some `Quantile(r2) < Quantile(r1)` with `r2 > r1`, k in {10, 20, 50, 100, 200}, n in [100, 50000], gaussian / uniform / lognormal. It also shows on the checked-in fixtures: `tdigest_ref_k100_n10000_double.sk` and every `serialization_test_data/cpp_generated_files/tdigest_double_*` file give thousands of descents over 5000 evenly spaced ranks, and 0 after.
It costs accuracy too. Rank error against the exact quantiles of the input, 29970 queries at k=100, n=20000 gaussian:
```
mean max
before 0.011803 0.042200
after 0.000385 0.002100
```
### The right tail branch adds where the reference subtracts
Reference is `max - (...)`, we have `d.max + (...)`, so the branch returns quantiles above `MaxValue()`. On min 0, centroids (10,100), (20,100), (30,100), max 40, rank 0.90 returns 45.92 where the reference gives 34.08.
This one is not reachable from `Update` or `Merge`. `merge` never lets the first or last centroid absorb a neighbour, so both tails stay singletons and `lastWeight > 1` is false. I looked for a counterexample over 3000 digests built from random updates, merges and encode/decode round trips and never saw a first or last centroid of weight above 1. It is reachable from `DecodeDouble`, which accepts one, so the test builds it that way.
`Rank`'s left tail already has the `/ centroidsWeight` normalizer, so there is nothing to change there. That is the one difference from apache/datasketches-java#755, which fixes the same two plus a missing normalizer in `getRank`.
Two new tests, each verified failing before its own fix with the tests kept in place. `go test ./...` and `go test -race ./tdigest/` are green before and after, so nothing existing covered this.
I used Claude Code on this. The oracles were tdunning's `MergingDigest` and monotonicity, which needs no second implementation. Differential testing against the C++ core would not have found it, since C++ has the same two.
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Re: [PR] Fix swapped interpolation weights and right tail sign in tdigest Quantile [datasketches-go]
Posted by "proost (via GitHub)" <gi...@apache.org>.
proost merged PR #171:
URL: https://github.com/apache/datasketches-go/pull/171
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