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# scipy.special.xlog1py

scipy.special.xlog1py(x, y, out=None) = <ufunc 'xlog1py'>

  Compute `x*log1p(y)` so that the result is 0 if `x = 0`.

  Parameters:
    xarray_like

      Multiplier

    yarray_like

      Argument

    outndarray, optional

      Optional output array for the function results

  Returns:
    zscalar or ndarray

      Computed x*log1p(y)

  Notes

  Added in version 0.13.0.

  Examples

  This example shows how the function can be used to calculate the log of the probability mass function for a geometric discrete random variable. The probability mass function of the geometric distribution is defined as follows:

  \[f(k) = (1-p)^{k-1} p\]

  where \(p\) is the probability of a single success and \(1-p\) is the probability of a single failure and \(k\) is the number of trials to get the first success.

      >>> import numpy as np
      >>> from scipy.special import xlog1py
      >>> p = 0.5
      >>> k = 100
      >>> _pmf = np.power(1 - p, k - 1) * p
      >>> _pmf
      7.888609052210118e-31

  If we take k as a relatively large number the value of the probability mass function can become very low. In such cases taking the log of the pmf would be more suitable as the log function can change the values to a scale that is more appropriate to work with.

      >>> _log_pmf = xlog1py(k - 1, -p) + np.log(p)
      >>> _log_pmf
      -69.31471805599453

  We can confirm that we get a value close to the original pmf value by taking the exponential of the log pmf.

      >>> _orig_pmf = np.exp(_log_pmf)
      >>> np.isclose(_pmf, _orig_pmf)
      True