sd-sample.cpp

#include <Rcpp.h>
using namespace Rcpp;

// [[Rcpp::export]]
double sdSample(NumericVector x) {
  int n = x.size();
  NumericVector sampled(n);
  
  for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
    sampled[i] = x[rand() % n];
  }
  
  return sd(sampled);
}

// Don't store the resampled x, instead compute a running variance. This 
// should be faster because it doesn't have to store the intermediate values.
// Algorithm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algorithms_for_calculating_variance#Online_algorithm
// [[Rcpp::export]]
double sdSample2(NumericVector x) {
  int n = x.size();
  
  double mean = 0, m2 = 0;
  
  for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
    double y = x[rand() % n];
    
    double delta = y - mean;
    mean += delta / (i + 1);
    m2 += delta * (y - mean);
  }
  double var = m2 / (n - 1);
  
  return sqrt(var);
}


/*** R
options(digits = 3)
library(microbenchmark)

x <- runif(1e3)

microbenchmark(
  sd(sample(x, rep = T)),
  sdSample(x),
  sdSample2(x)
)
# Unit: microseconds
#                    expr  min   lq median   uq   max neval
#  sd(sample(x, rep = T)) 47.2 50.8   52.1 53.2 114.2   100
#             sdSample(x) 11.8 12.7   13.6 14.4  26.2   100
#            sdSample2(x) 11.6 11.9   12.1 12.7  32.0   100

*/

You can use RcppArmadillo:sample it's faster and you'll avoid the rand() % n trick

// -*- mode:poly-C++R -*-
#include <RcppArmadilloExtensions/sample.h>
// [[Rcpp::depends(RcppArmadillo)]]
using namespace Rcpp;

//[[Rcpp::export]]
double sdSample3(NumericVector x) {
    int n = x.size();
    NumericVector sampled = RcppArmadillo::sample(x, n, true);
    return sd(sampled);
}


// [[Rcpp::export]]
double sdSample(NumericVector x) {
    int n = x.size();
    NumericVector sampled(n);
    for (int i = 0; i < n; ++i) {
    sampled[i] = x[rand() % n];
    }
    return sd(sampled);
}



/*** R
options(digits = 3)
library(microbenchmark)

x <- runif(1e3)

microbenchmark(
    sd(sample(x, rep = T)),
    sdSample(x),
    sdSample3(x)
    )
## Unit: microseconds
##                    expr  min   lq median   uq   max neval
##  sd(sample(x, rep = T)) 39.1 42.0   43.3 44.4 798.7   100
##             sdSample(x) 22.0 23.7   24.1 24.6  37.8   100
##            sdSample3(x) 14.5 16.5   17.2 17.9  23.3   100

*/

@dickoa great idea - thanks!