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This is related to How to define an n-variate empirical distribution function probability for any n? and RandomVariate from 2-dimensional probability distribution but I don't think neither questions (and their answers) answer the question below. (The first one constructs the problem from data and not from a priori specified probability weights, and hence they can use NProbability; and the second one seems like an extreme overkill for something like a simple discrete distribution where one doesn't really need to kick out random number generators).

I want to construct a multivariate discrete distribution so that I can use the full functionality of RandomVariate and things of that sort.

In 1-dimension, I can use EmpiricalDistribution. For instance, for a $X \sim Bernoulli(p)$ with $p = 1/2$, it is simply 

gdist = EmpiricalDistribution[{0.5, 0.5} -> {0, 1}]

and from this, I can go on to compute mean and variances via Expectation, say 

Expectation[ 2*x + 1, x \[Distributed] gdist]

as afforded by RandomVariate and all its friends.

Question: How does one do that for a multivariate discrete distribution (whether via EmpiricalDistribution or not)? That is, suppose we consider,

$$ (X,Y) = \begin{equation} \begin{cases} (1,0), \quad \text{with probability } p_{10} \\ (0,1), \quad p_{01} \\ (0,0), \quad p_{00} \\ (1,1), \quad p_{11}. \end{cases} \end{equation}, $$ where of course $p_{10} + p_{01} + p_{00} + p_{11} = 1$ are the probability weights. How does one implement the above distribution, say labelled as gmultdist so that we can compute Expectation[ 2*x + 3*y, {x,y} \[Distributed] gmultdist]?

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closed as off-topic by ciao, m_goldberg, MarcoB, Bob Hanlon, Öskå Aug 23 '15 at 19:40

This question appears to be off-topic. The users who voted to close gave this specific reason:

  • "This question arises due to a simple mistake such as a trivial syntax error, incorrect capitalization, spelling mistake, or other typographical error and is unlikely to help any future visitors, or else it is easily found in the documentation." – ciao, m_goldberg, MarcoB, Bob Hanlon, Öskå
If this question can be reworded to fit the rules in the help center, please edit the question.

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The weghts do not have to be equal or even numerical.

$Version

(* "10.2.0 for Mac OS X x86 (64-bit) (July 7, 2015)" *)

Format[p[x_, y_]] := Subscript[p, Row[{x, y}]]

assume = {Thread[0 <= {p[0, 0], p[0, 1], p[1, 0], p[1, 1]} <= 1], 
    p[0, 0] + p[0, 1] + p[1, 0] + p[1, 1] == 1} // Flatten;

gmultdist = 
  EmpiricalDistribution[{p[0, 0], p[0, 1], p[1, 0], 
     p[1, 1]} -> {{0, 0}, {0, 1}, {1, 0}, {1, 1}}];

Using a replacement rule for the total probability gives the expected form of the result.

PDF[gmultdist, #] & /@ {{0, 0}, {0, 1}, {1, 0}, {1, 1}} /. 
 p[0, 0] + p[0, 1] + p[1, 0] + p[1, 1] -> 1

enter image description here

However, using assumptions gives the result in terms of three independent variables rather than the shorter form wth four variables.

Assuming[assume, (PDF[gmultdist, #] & /@ {{0, 0}, {0, 1}, {1, 0}, {1, 1}}) // 
  Simplify]

enter image description here

Assuming[assume, (Probability[
      x == #[[1]] && y == #[[2]], {x, y} \[Distributed] gmultdist] & /@ {{0, 
      0}, {0, 1}, {1, 0}, {1, 1}}) // Simplify]

enter image description here

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  • $\begingroup$ This is a better solution than mine :) $\endgroup$ – user32416 Aug 23 '15 at 19:24
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I'd subsequently realized that I could simply just do

gmultdist = EmpiricalDistribution[  {0.25, 0.25, 0.25, 0.25} -> { {0, 0}, {0, 1}, {1, 0}, {1, 1}  } ]

for the case of all equal weights. My original mistake was in "flipping" the order of -> initially in EmpiricalDistribution.

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