tfp.substrates.numpy.distributions.Distribution

A generic probability distribution base class.

Distribution is a base class for constructing and organizing properties (e.g., mean, variance) of random variables (e.g, Bernoulli, Gaussian).

Subclassing

Subclasses are expected to implement a leading-underscore version of the same-named function. The argument signature should be identical except for the omission of name='...'. For example, to enable log_prob(value, name='log_prob') a subclass should implement _log_prob(value).

Subclasses can append to public-level docstrings by providing docstrings for their method specializations. For example:

@distribution_util.AppendDocstring('Some other details.')
def _log_prob(self, value):
  ...

would add the string "Some other details." to the log_prob function docstring. This is implemented as a simple decorator to avoid python linter complaining about missing Args/Returns/Raises sections in the partial docstrings.

TFP methods generally assume that Distribution subclasses implement at least the following methods:

  • _sample_n.
  • _log_prob or _prob.
  • _event_shape and _event_shape_tensor.
  • _parameter_properties OR _batch_shape and _batch_shape_tensor.

Batch shape methods can be automatically derived from parameter_properties in most cases, so it's usually not necessary to implement them directly. Exceptions include Distributions that accept non-Tensor parameters (for example, a distribution parameterized by a callable), or that have nonstandard batch semantics (for example, BatchReshape).

Some functionality may depend on implementing additional methods. It is common for Distribution subclasses to implement:

  • Relevant statistics, such as _mean, _mode, _variance and/or _stddev.
  • At least one of _log_cdf, _cdf, _survival_function, or _log_survival_function.
  • _quantile.
  • _entropy.
  • _default_event_space_bijector.
  • _parameter_properties (to support automatic batch shape derivation, batch slicing and other features).
  • _sample_and_log_prob,
  • _maximum_likelihood_parameters.

Note that subclasses of existing Distributions that redefine __init__ do not automatically inherit _parameter_properties annotations from their parent: the subclass must explicitly implement its own _parameter_properties method to support the features, such as batch slicing, that this enables.

Broadcasting, batching, and shapes

All distributions support batches of independent distributions of that type. The batch shape is determined by broadcasting together the parameters.

The shape of arguments to __init__, cdf, log_cdf, prob, and log_prob reflect this broadcasting, as does the return value of sample.

sample_n_shape = [n] + batch_shape + event_shape, where sample_n_shape is the shape of the Tensor returned from sample(n), n is the number of samples, batch_shape defines how many independent distributions there are, and event_shape defines the shape of samples from each of those independent distributions. Samples are independent along the batch_shape dimensions, but not necessarily so along the event_shape dimensions (depending on the particulars of the underlying distribution).

Using the Uniform distribution as an example:

minval = 3.0
maxval = [[4.0, 6.0],
          [10.0, 12.0]]

# Broadcasting:
# This instance represents 4 Uniform distributions. Each has a lower bound at
# 3.0 as the `minval` parameter was broadcasted to match `maxval`'s shape.
u = Uniform(minval, maxval)

# `event_shape` is `TensorShape([])`.
event_shape = u.event_shape
# `event_shape_t` is a `Tensor` which will evaluate to [].
event_shape_t = u.event_shape_tensor()

# Sampling returns a sample per distribution. `samples` has shape
# [5, 2, 2], which is [n] + batch_shape + event_shape, where n=5,
# batch_shape=[2, 2], and event_shape=[].
samples = u.sample(5)

# The broadcasting holds across methods. Here we use `cdf` as an example. The
# same holds for `log_cdf` and the likelihood functions.

# `cum_prob` has shape [2, 2] as the `value` argument was broadcasted to the
# shape of the `Uniform` instance.
cum_prob_broadcast = u.cdf(4.0)

# `cum_prob`'s shape is [2, 2], one per distribution. No broadcasting
# occurred.
cum_prob_per_dist = u.cdf([[4.0, 5.0],
                           [6.0, 7.0]])

# INVALID as the `value` argument is not broadcastable to the distribution's
# shape.
cum_prob_invalid = u.cdf([4.0, 5.0, 6.0])

Shapes

There are three important concepts associated with TensorFlow Distributions shapes:

  • Event shape describes the shape of a single draw from the distribution; it may be dependent across dimensions. For scalar distributions, the event shape is []. For a 5-dimensional MultivariateNormal, the event shape is [5].
  • Batch shape describes independent, not identically distributed draws, aka a "collection" or "bunch" of distributions.
  • Sample shape describes independent, identically distributed draws of batches from the distribution family.

The event shape and the batch shape are properties of a Distribution object, whereas the sample shape is associated with a specific call to sample or log_prob.

For detailed usage examples of TensorFlow Distributions shapes, see this tutorial

Parameter values leading to undefined statistics or distributions.

Some distributions do not have well-defined statistics for all initialization parameter values. For example, the beta distribution is parameterized by positive real numbers concentration1 and concentration0, and does not have well-defined mode if concentration1 < 1 or concentration0 < 1.

The user is given the option of raising an exception or returning NaN.

a = tf.exp(tf.matmul(logits, weights_a))
b = tf.exp(tf.matmul(logits, weights_b))

# Will raise exception if ANY batch member has a < 1 or b < 1.
dist = distributions.beta(a, b, allow_nan_stats=False)
mode = dist.mode()

# Will return NaN for batch members with either a < 1 or b < 1.
dist = distributions.beta(a, b, allow_nan_stats=True)  # Default behavior
mode = dist.mode()

In all cases, an exception is raised if invalid parameters are passed, e.g.

# Will raise an exception if any Op is run.
negative_a = -1.0 * a  # beta distribution by definition has a > 0.
dist = distributions.beta(negative_a, b, allow_nan_stats=True)
dist.mean()

dtype The type of the event samples. None implies no type-enforcement.
reparameterization_type Instance of ReparameterizationType. If tfd.FULLY_REPARAMETERIZED, then samples from the distribution are fully reparameterized, and straight-through gradients are supported. If tfd.NOT_REPARAMETERIZED, then samples from the distribution are not fully reparameterized, and straight-through gradients are either partially unsupported or are not supported at all.
validate_args Python bool, default False. When True distribution parameters are checked for validity despite possibly degrading runtime performance. When False invalid inputs may silently render incorrect outputs.
allow_nan_stats Python bool, default True. When True, statistics (e.g., mean, mode, variance) use the value "NaN" to indicate the result is undefined. When False, an exception is raised if one or more of the statistic's batch members are undefined.
parameters Python dict of parameters used to instantiate this Distribution.
graph_parents Python list of graph prerequisites of this Distribution.
name Python str name prefixed to Ops created by this class. Default: subclass name.

ValueError if any member of graph_parents is None or not a Tensor.

allow_nan_stats Python bool describing behavior when a stat is undefined.

Stats return +/- infinity when it makes sense. E.g., the variance of a Cauchy distribution is infinity. However, sometimes the statistic is undefined, e.g., if a distribution's pdf does not achieve a maximum within the support of the distribution, the mode is undefined. If the mean is undefined, then by definition the variance is undefined. E.g. the mean for Student's T for df = 1 is undefined (no clear way to say it is either + or - infinity), so the variance = E[(X - mean)**2] is also undefined.

batch_shape Shape of a single sample from a single event index as a TensorShape.

May be partially defined or unknown.

The batch dimensions are indexes into independent, non-identical parameterizations of this distribution.

dtype The DType of Tensors handled by this Distribution.
event_shape Shape of a single sample from a single batch as a TensorShape.

May be partially defined or unknown.

experimental_shard_axis_names The list or structure of lists of active shard axis names.
name Name prepended to all ops created by this Distribution.
parameters Dictionary of parameters used to instantiate this Distribution.
reparameterization_type Describes how samples from the distribution are reparameterized.

Currently this is one of the static instances tfd.FULLY_REPARAMETERIZED or tfd.NOT_REPARAMETERIZED.

trainable_variables

validate_args Python bool indicating possibly expensive checks are enabled.
variables

Methods

batch_shape_tensor

View source

Shape of a single sample from a single event index as a 1-D Tensor.

The batch dimensions are indexes into independent, non-identical parameterizations of this distribution.

Args
name name to give to the op

Returns
batch_shape Tensor.

cdf

View source

Cumulative distribution function.

Given random variable X, the cumulative distribution function cdf is:

cdf(x) := P[X <= x]

Args
value float or double Tensor.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
cdf a Tensor of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.

copy

View source

Creates a deep copy of the distribution.

Args
**override_parameters_kwargs String/value dictionary of initialization arguments to override with new values.

Returns
distribution A new instance of type(self) initialized from the union of self.parameters and override_parameters_kwargs, i.e., dict(self.parameters, **override_parameters_kwargs).

covariance

View source

Covariance.

Covariance is (possibly) defined only for non-scalar-event distributions.

For example, for a length-k, vector-valued distribution, it is calculated as,

Cov[i, j] = Covariance(X_i, X_j) = E[(X_i - E[X_i]) (X_j - E[X_j])]

where Cov is a (batch of) k x k matrix, 0 <= (i, j) < k, and E denotes expectation.

Alternatively, for non-vector, multivariate distributions (e.g., matrix-valued, Wishart), Covariance shall return a (batch of) matrices under some vectorization of the events, i.e.,

Cov[i, j] = Covariance(Vec(X)_i, Vec(X)_j) = [as above]

where Cov is a (batch of) k' x k' matrices, 0 <= (i, j) < k' = reduce_prod(event_shape), and Vec is some function mapping indices of this distribution's event dimensions to indices of a length-k' vector.

Args
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
covariance Floating-point Tensor with shape [B1, ..., Bn, k', k'] where the first n dimensions are batch coordinates and k' = reduce_prod(self.event_shape).

cross_entropy

View source

Computes the (Shannon) cross entropy.

Denote this distribution (self) by P and the other distribution by Q. Assuming P, Q are absolutely continuous with respect to one another and permit densities p(x) dr(x) and q(x) dr(x), (Shannon) cross entropy is defined as:

H[P, Q] = E_p[-log q(X)] = -int_F p(x) log q(x) dr(x)

where F denotes the support of the random variable X ~ P.

Args
other tfp.distributions.Distribution instance.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.

Returns
cross_entropy self.dtype Tensor with shape [B1, ..., Bn] representing n different calculations of (Shannon) cross entropy.

entropy

View source

Shannon entropy in nats.

event_shape_tensor

View source

Shape of a single sample from a single batch as a 1-D int32 Tensor.

Args
name name to give to the op

Returns
event_shape Tensor.

experimental_default_event_space_bijector

View source

Bijector mapping the reals (R**n) to the event space of the distribution.

Distributions with continuous support may implement _default_event_space_bijector which returns a subclass of tfp.bijectors.Bijector that maps R**n to the distribution's event space. For example, the default bijector for the Beta distribution is tfp.bijectors.Sigmoid(), which maps the real line to [0, 1], the support of the Beta distribution. The default bijector for the CholeskyLKJ distribution is tfp.bijectors.CorrelationCholesky, which maps R^(k * (k-1) // 2) to the submanifold of k x k lower triangular matrices with ones along the diagonal.

The purpose of experimental_default_event_space_bijector is to enable gradient descent in an unconstrained space for Variational Inference and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods. Some effort has been made to choose bijectors such that the tails of the distribution in the unconstrained space are between Gaussian and Exponential.

For distributions with discrete event space, or for which TFP currently lacks a suitable bijector, this function returns None.

Args
*args Passed to implementation _default_event_space_bijector.
**kwargs Passed to implementation _default_event_space_bijector.

Returns
event_space_bijector Bijector instance or None.

experimental_fit

View source

Instantiates a distribution that maximizes the likelihood of x.

Args
value a Tensor valid sample from this distribution family.
sample_ndims Positive int Tensor number of leftmost dimensions of value that index i.i.d. samples. Default value: 1.
validate_args Python bool, default False. When True, distribution parameters are checked for validity despite possibly degrading runtime performance. When False, invalid inputs may silently render incorrect outputs. Default value: False.
**init_kwargs Additional keyword arguments passed through to cls.__init__. These take precedence in case of collision with the fitted parameters; for example, tfd.Normal.experimental_fit([1., 1.], scale=20.) returns a Normal distribution with scale=20. rather than the maximum likelihood parameter scale=0..

Returns
maximum_likelihood_instance instance of cls with parameters that maximize the likelihood of value.

experimental_local_measure

View source

Returns a log probability density together with a TangentSpace.

A TangentSpace allows us to calculate the correct push-forward density when we apply a transformation to a Distribution on a strict submanifold of R^n (typically via a Bijector in the TransformedDistribution subclass). The density correction uses the basis of the tangent space.

Args
value float or double Tensor.
backward_compat bool specifying whether to fall back to returning FullSpace as the tangent space, and representing R^n with the standard basis.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
log_prob a Tensor representing the log probability density, of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.
tangent_space a TangentSpace object (by default FullSpace) representing the tangent space to the manifold at value.

Raises
UnspecifiedTangentSpaceError if backward_compat is False and the _experimental_tangent_space attribute has not been defined.

experimental_sample_and_log_prob

View source

Samples from this distribution and returns the log density of the sample.

The default implementation simply calls sample and log_prob:

def _sample_and_log_prob(self, sample_shape, seed, **kwargs):
  x = self.sample(sample_shape=sample_shape, seed=seed, **kwargs)
  return x, self.log_prob(x, **kwargs)

However, some subclasses may provide more efficient and/or numerically stable implementations.

Args
sample_shape integer Tensor desired shape of samples to draw. Default value: ().
seed PRNG seed; see tfp.random.sanitize_seed for details. Default value: None.
name name to give to the op. Default value: 'sample_and_log_prob'.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
samples a Tensor, or structure of Tensors, with prepended dimensions sample_shape.
log_prob a Tensor of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.

is_scalar_batch

View source

Indicates that batch_shape == [].

Args
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.

Returns
is_scalar_batch bool scalar Tensor.

is_scalar_event

View source

Indicates that event_shape == [].

Args
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.

Returns
is_scalar_event bool scalar Tensor.

kl_divergence

View source

Computes the Kullback--Leibler divergence.

Denote this distribution (self) by p and the other distribution by q. Assuming p, q are absolutely continuous with respect to reference measure r, the KL divergence is defined as:

KL[p, q] = E_p[log(p(X)/q(X))]
         = -int_F p(x) log q(x) dr(x) + int_F p(x) log p(x) dr(x)
         = H[p, q] - H[p]

where F denotes the support of the random variable X ~ p, H[., .] denotes (Shannon) cross entropy, and H[.] denotes (Shannon) entropy.

Args
other tfp.distributions.Distribution instance.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.

Returns
kl_divergence self.dtype Tensor with shape [B1, ..., Bn] representing n different calculations of the Kullback-Leibler divergence.

log_cdf

View source

Log cumulative distribution function.

Given random variable X, the cumulative distribution function cdf is:

log_cdf(x) := Log[ P[X <= x] ]

Often, a numerical approximation can be used for log_cdf(x) that yields a more accurate answer than simply taking the logarithm of the cdf when x << -1.

Args
value float or double Tensor.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
logcdf a Tensor of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.

log_prob

View source

Log probability density/mass function.

Args
value float or double Tensor.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
log_prob a Tensor of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.

log_survival_function

View source

Log survival function.

Given random variable X, the survival function is defined:

log_survival_function(x) = Log[ P[X > x] ]
                         = Log[ 1 - P[X <= x] ]
                         = Log[ 1 - cdf(x) ]

Typically, different numerical approximations can be used for the log survival function, which are more accurate than 1 - cdf(x) when x >> 1.

Args
value float or double Tensor.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
Tensor of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.

mean

View source

Mean.

mode

View source

Mode.

param_shapes

View source

Shapes of parameters given the desired shape of a call to sample().

This is a class method that describes what key/value arguments are required to instantiate the given Distribution so that a particular shape is returned for that instance's call to sample().

Subclasses should override class method _param_shapes.

Args
sample_shape Tensor or python list/tuple. Desired shape of a call to sample().
name name to prepend ops with.

Returns
dict of parameter name to Tensor shapes.

param_static_shapes

View source

param_shapes with static (i.e. TensorShape) shapes.

This is a class method that describes what key/value arguments are required to instantiate the given Distribution so that a particular shape is returned for that instance's call to sample(). Assumes that the sample's shape is known statically.

Subclasses should override class method _param_shapes to return constant-valued tensors when constant values are fed.

Args
sample_shape TensorShape or python list/tuple. Desired shape of a call to sample().

Returns
dict of parameter name to TensorShape.

Raises
ValueError if sample_shape is a TensorShape and is not fully defined.

parameter_properties

View source

Returns a dict mapping constructor arg names to property annotations.

This dict should include an entry for each of the distribution's Tensor-valued constructor arguments.

Distribution subclasses are not required to implement _parameter_properties, so this method may raise NotImplementedError. Providing a _parameter_properties implementation enables several advanced features, including:

  • Distribution batch slicing (sliced_distribution = distribution[i:j]).
  • Automatic inference of _batch_shape and _batch_shape_tensor, which must otherwise be computed explicitly.
  • Automatic instantiation of the distribution within TFP's internal property tests.
  • Automatic construction of 'trainable' instances of the distribution using appropriate bijectors to avoid violating parameter constraints. This enables the distribution family to be used easily as a surrogate posterior in variational inference.

In the future, parameter property annotations may enable additional functionality; for example, returning Distribution instances from tf.vectorized_map.

Args
dtype Optional float dtype to assume for continuous-valued parameters. Some constraining bijectors require advance knowledge of the dtype because certain constants (e.g., tfb.Softplus.low) must be instantiated with the same dtype as the values to be transformed.
num_classes Optional int Tensor number of classes to assume when inferring the shape of parameters for categorical-like distributions. Otherwise ignored.

Returns
parameter_properties A str ->tfp.python.internal.parameter_properties.ParameterPropertiesdict mapping constructor argument names toParameterProperties` instances.

Raises
NotImplementedError if the distribution class does not implement _parameter_properties.

prob

View source

Probability density/mass function.

Args
value float or double Tensor.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
prob a Tensor of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.

quantile

View source

Quantile function. Aka 'inverse cdf' or 'percent point function'.

Given random variable X and p in [0, 1], the quantile is:

quantile(p) := x such that P[X <= x] == p

Args
value float or double Tensor.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
quantile a Tensor of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.

sample

View source

Generate samples of the specified shape.

Note that a call to sample() without arguments will generate a single sample.

Args
sample_shape 0D or 1D int32 Tensor. Shape of the generated samples.
seed PRNG seed; see tfp.random.sanitize_seed for details.
name name to give to the op.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
samples a Tensor with prepended dimensions sample_shape.

stddev

View source

Standard deviation.

Standard deviation is defined as,

stddev = E[(X - E[X])**2]**0.5

where X is the random variable associated with this distribution, E denotes expectation, and stddev.shape = batch_shape + event_shape.

Args
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
stddev Floating-point Tensor with shape identical to batch_shape + event_shape, i.e., the same shape as self.mean().

survival_function

View source

Survival function.

Given random variable X, the survival function is defined:

survival_function(x) = P[X > x]
                     = 1 - P[X <= x]
                     = 1 - cdf(x).

Args
value float or double Tensor.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
Tensor of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.

unnormalized_log_prob

View source

Potentially unnormalized log probability density/mass function.

This function is similar to log_prob, but does not require that the return value be normalized. (Normalization here refers to the total integral of probability being one, as it should be by definition for any probability distribution.) This is useful, for example, for distributions where the normalization constant is difficult or expensive to compute. By default, this simply calls log_prob.

Args
value float or double Tensor.
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
unnormalized_log_prob a Tensor of shape sample_shape(x) + self.batch_shape with values of type self.dtype.

variance

View source

Variance.

Variance is defined as,

Var = E[(X - E[X])**2]

where X is the random variable associated with this distribution, E denotes expectation, and Var.shape = batch_shape + event_shape.

Args
name Python str prepended to names of ops created by this function.
**kwargs Named arguments forwarded to subclass implementation.

Returns
variance Floating-point Tensor with shape identical to batch_shape + event_shape, i.e., the same shape as self.mean().

__getitem__

View source

Slices the batch axes of this distribution, returning a new instance.

b = tfd.Bernoulli(logits=tf.zeros([3, 5, 7, 9]))
b.batch_shape  # => [3, 5, 7, 9]
b2 = b[:, tf.newaxis, ..., -2:, 1::2]
b2.batch_shape  # => [3, 1, 5, 2, 4]

x = tf.random.stateless_normal([5, 3, 2, 2])
cov = tf.matmul(x, x, transpose_b=True)
chol = tf.linalg.cholesky(cov)
loc = tf.random.stateless_normal([4, 1, 3, 1])
mvn = tfd.MultivariateNormalTriL(loc, chol)
mvn.batch_shape  # => [4, 5, 3]
mvn.event_shape  # => [2]
mvn2 = mvn[:, 3:, ..., ::-1, tf.newaxis]
mvn2.batch_shape  # => [4, 2, 3, 1]
mvn2.event_shape  # => [2]

Args
slices slices from the [] operator

Returns
dist A new tfd.Distribution instance with sliced parameters.

__iter__

View source