tfp.stats.quantiles

Compute quantiles of x along axis.

The quantiles of a distribution are cut points dividing the range into intervals with equal probabilities.

Given a vector x of samples, this function estimates the cut points by returning num_quantiles + 1 cut points, (c0, ..., cn), such that, roughly speaking, equal number of sample points lie in the num_quantiles intervals [c0, c1), [c1, c2), ..., [c_{n-1}, cn]. That is,

  • About 1 / n fraction of the data lies in [c_{k-1}, c_k), k = 1, ..., n
  • About k / n fraction of the data lies below c_k.
  • c0 is the sample minimum and cn is the maximum.

The exact number of data points in each interval depends on the size of x (e.g. whether the size is divisible by n) and the interpolation kwarg.

x Numeric N-D Tensor with N > 0. If axis is not None, x must have statically known number of dimensions.
num_quantiles Scalar integer Tensor. The number of intervals the returned num_quantiles + 1 cut points divide the range into.
axis Optional 0-D or 1-D integer Tensor with constant values. The axis that index independent samples over which to return the desired percentile. If None (the default), treat every dimension as a sample dimension, returning a scalar.
interpolation {'nearest', 'linear', 'lower', 'higher', 'midpoint'}. Default value: 'nearest'. This specifies the interpolation method to use when the fractions k / n lie between two data points i < j:

  • linear: i + (j - i) * fraction, where fraction is the fractional part of the index surrounded by i and j.
  • lower: i.
  • higher: j.
  • nearest: i or j, whichever is nearest.
  • midpoint: (i + j) / 2. linear and midpoint interpolation do not work with integer dtypes.
keepdims Python bool. If True, the last dimension is kept with size 1 If False, the last dimension is removed from the output shape.
validate_args Whether to add runtime checks of argument validity. If False, and arguments are incorrect, correct behavior is not guaranteed.
name A Python string name to give this Op. Default is 'percentile'

cut_points A rank(x) + 1 - len(axis) dimensional Tensor with same dtype as x and shape [num_quantiles + 1, ...] where the trailing shape is that of x without the dimensions in axis (unless keepdims is True)

ValueError If argument 'interpolation' is not an allowed type.
ValueError If interpolation type not compatible with dtype.

Examples

# Get quartiles of x with various interpolation choices.
x = [0.,  1.,   2.,   3.,   4.,   5.,   6.,   7.,   8.,   9.,  10.]

tfp.stats.quantiles(x, num_quantiles=4, interpolation='nearest')
==> [  0.,   2.,   5.,   8.,  10.]

tfp.stats.quantiles(x, num_quantiles=4, interpolation='linear')
==> [  0. ,   2.5,   5. ,   7.5,  10. ]

tfp.stats.quantiles(x, num_quantiles=4, interpolation='lower')
==> [  0.,   2.,   5.,   7.,  10.]

# Get deciles of columns of an R x C data set.
data = load_my_columnar_data(...)
tfp.stats.quantiles(data, num_quantiles=10)
==> Shape [11, C] Tensor