I want an efficient subroutine that inserts $elt into @x and returns the percentile of $elt in @x.
For example, if @x is (2,2,3,3,3,4,5,6,7,8) and $elt is 3, the subroutine returns .363636... and @x is now (2,2,3,3,3,3,4,5,6,7,8). Why .363636...?: % After insertion, @x has 11 elements. $elt (3) beats 2 of those elements and ties 4 (including itself). Ties count as half-wins, so the new element beats 2+(4/2) or 4 elements, and 4/11 is .3636... Below is one way to do it. I'd turn it into a subroutine if I wanted to use it, but it's really inefficient. If I insert 100 elements and want the percentile of each as its inserted, it has to do something like 50K comparisons. The subroutine's also ugly, but ignore that. I'm guessing a subroutine that maintained a sorted list would work much better. My ugly inefficient solution: @mylist = (2,2,3,3,3,4,5,6,7,8); $elt = 3; push(@mylist,$elt); #insert the element first for $i (@mylist) { if ($elt>$i) {$win++; next} # how many times does $elt beat list values if ($elt<$i) {$lose++; next} # how many times does $elt lose to list value $tie++; # ties count as half-wins, including the element I just inserted } print "WIN: $win, TIE: $tie, LOSE: $lose\n"; # could use $#mylist+1 for denominator below; 1. is to force floating point print 1.*($win+$tie/2)/($win+$lose+$tie); print "\n"; -- We're just a Bunch Of Regular Guys, a collective group that's trying to understand and assimilate technology. We feel that resistance to new ideas and technology is unwise and ultimately futile. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://learn.perl.org/