Re: [Boost-users] [accumulators] Any was to reset an accumulator_set object?

Subject: Re: [Boost-users] [accumulators] Any was to reset an accumulator_set object?
From: Eric Niebler (eric_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-03-02 12:47:30

dhruva wrote:
> Hello, I am using boost::accumulator_set to compute mean. After every
> 100 samples, I need to start afresh. Since I am using accumulator_set
> as a member variable in a class (I get samples one at a time and need
> to preserve accumulator_set object across function calls), I need
> some mechanism to reset it to its initial state. 

The issue of being able to reset an accumulator_set was raised during 
its review. In the review summary, there is this note:

> The ability to "reset" and accumulator was requested. Eric pointed
> out that it is quite possible to make accumulators with reset methods.
> He also pointed out that it might be desirable to reset
> accumulator_sets, but this could also pose a problem. It is not clear
> what should happen if one of the accumulators used by an accumulator set
> does not have a reset method. Further thought should be given to this
> for possible inclusion in a later revision. 

For some accumulators, the "initial state" depends on its initialization 
parameters, so resetting can only be done if those parameters are cached 
somewhere, or else they are resupplied when calling reset().

It might actually be possible to define a "resetable" accumulator set 
that saves its configuration state in a type-erased form and then either 
resets itself either by constructing a temporary and doing an 
assignment, or else by in-place destruct/construct. The configuration 
state could be saved in a pseudo-accumulator. Hmm ...

-- 
Eric Niebler
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com