update_comparison: Update a comparison with new paired losses

In seqbench: Anytime-Valid Sequential Benchmarking of Algorithms

Update a comparison with new paired losses

Description

Absorbs the losses of one or more new instances, in the order given, and advances the confidence sequence and the decision after each instance. The sequential unit is the instance: all rows of an instance (its seeds) are averaged into one observation. Updating stops at the first instance that triggers a terminal decision or exhausts the budget; rows after it are not consumed and a warning says so.

Usage

update_comparison(state, losses)

Arguments

state	A seqbench_comparison from initialize_comparison().
losses	A data frame with columns instance, loss_a, loss_b, and optionally seed (default 1) and cost (default design$cost_per_round per row). Losses must lie within the design bounds; instances must not have been seen before.

Value

The updated seqbench_comparison.

Examples

design <- comparison_design(margin = 0.05, bounds = c(0, 1), boundary = "hoeffding")
state <- initialize_comparison(design)
set.seed(1)
losses <- data.frame(instance = 1:50, loss_a = runif(50, 0, 0.5),
                     loss_b = runif(50, 0.3, 0.8))
state <- update_comparison(state, losses)
stopping_decision(state)

seqbench documentation built on Oct. 8, 2026, 5:07 p.m.