Question

I need to calculate the standard deviation of a generic list. I will try to include my code. Its a generic list with data in it. The data is mostly floats and ints. Here is my code that is relative to it without getting into to much detail:

namespace ValveTesterInterface
{
    public class ValveDataResults
    {
        private List<ValveData> m_ValveResults;

        public ValveDataResults()
        {
            if (m_ValveResults == null)
            {
                m_ValveResults = new List<ValveData>();
            }
        }

        public void AddValveData(ValveData valve)
        {
            m_ValveResults.Add(valve);
        }

Here is the function where the standard deviation needs to be calculated:

        public float LatchStdev()
        {

            float sumOfSqrs = 0;
            float meanValue = 0;
            foreach (ValveData value in m_ValveResults)
            {
                meanValue += value.LatchTime;
            }
            meanValue = (meanValue / m_ValveResults.Count) * 0.02f;

            for (int i = 0; i <= m_ValveResults.Count; i++) 
            {   
                sumOfSqrs += Math.Pow((m_ValveResults - meanValue), 2);  
            }
            return Math.Sqrt(sumOfSqrs /(m_ValveResults.Count - 1));

        }
    }
}

Ignore whats inside the LatchStdev() function because I’m sure its not right. Its just my poor attempt to calculate the st dev. I know how to do it of a list of doubles, however not of a list of generic data list. If someone had experience in this, please help.

Answer 1

This article should help you. It creates a function that computes the deviation of a sequence of double values. All you have to do is supply a sequence of appropriate data elements.

The resulting function is:

private double CalculateStandardDeviation(IEnumerable<double> values)
{   
  double standardDeviation = 0;

  if (values.Any()) 
  {      
     // Compute the average.     
     double avg = values.Average();

     // Perform the Sum of (value-avg)_2_2.      
     double sum = values.Sum(d => Math.Pow(d - avg, 2));

     // Put it all together.      
     standardDeviation = Math.Sqrt((sum) / (values.Count()-1));   
  }  

  return standardDeviation;
}

This is easy enough to adapt for any generic type, so long as we provide a selector for the value being computed. LINQ is great for that, the Select funciton allows you to project from your generic list of custom types a sequence of numeric values for which to compute the standard deviation:

List<ValveData> list = ...
var result = list.Select( v => (double)v.SomeField )
                 .CalculateStdDev();