Infer.NET

String and character factors

This page lists the built-in methods and operators for creating random variables of type string and char. For both static methods and operators, you can often pass in random variables as arguments e.g. Variable<string> instead of string. For compactness, this is not shown in the syntax below.

These methods provide a convenient short alternative to using Variable<T>.Factor and passing in the factor method, as described on this page.

All factors on this page are experimental, and subject to change.

Distribution Factors

A distribution factor creates a random variable from a parameterised distribution.

Distribution	Syntax	Description
String Distribution	`Variable.StringUniform()`	Creates a uniformly distributed string random variable. The distribution of the variable is improper.
String Distribution	`Variable.StringLower()` `Variable.StringLower(int minLength, int maxLength)` `Variable.StringUpper()` `Variable.StringUpper(int minLength, int maxLength)` `Variable.StringLetters()` `Variable.StringLetters(int minLength, int maxLength)` `Variable.StringDigits()` `Variable.StringDigits(int minLength, int maxLength)` `Variable.StringLettersOrDigits()` `Variable.StringLettersOrDigits(int minLength, int maxLength)` `Variable.StringWhitespace()` `Variable.StringWhitespace(int minLength, int maxLength)` `Variable.StringWord()` `Variable.StringWord(int minLength, int maxLength)` `Variable.StringNonWord()` `Variable.StringNonWord(int minLength, int maxLength)`	Creates a string random variable uniformly distributed over all either non-empty strings or strings with length in given bounds, containing lowercase (uppercase, letters, digits, letters and digits, word, non-word) characters only. If the upper length bound is not specified, the distribution of the variable is improper.
String Distribution	`Variable.StringCapitalized()` `Variable.StringCapitalized(int minLength, int maxLength)`	Creates a string random variable uniformly distributed over all strings starting from an uppercase letter, followed by one or more lowercase letters. If the upper length bound is not specified, the distribution of the variable is improper.
String Distribution	`Variable.StringOfLength(int length)` `Variable.StringOfLength(int length, DiscreteChar allowedCharacters)`	Creates a string random variable uniformly distributed over all strings of given length. String characters are restricted to be non zero probability characters under a given character distribution, if it is provided.
String Distribution	`Variable.String(int minLength, int maxLength)` `Variable.String(int minLength, int maxLength, DiscreteChar allowedCharacters)`	Creates a string random variable uniformly distributed over all strings with length in given bounds. String characters are restricted to be non zero probability characters under a given character distribution, if it is provided. If the upper length bound is not specified, the distribution of the variable is improper.
Discrete Char	`Variable.Char(Vector probs)`	Creates a char random variable from a supplied vector of character probabilities. The probabilities much add up to 1 and be provided for every possible character value, from char.MinValue to char.MaxValue.
Discrete Char	`Variable.CharUniform()` `Variable.CharLower()` `Variable.CharUpper()` `Variable.CharLetter()` `Variable.CharDigit()` `Variable.CharLetterOrDigit()` `Variable.CharWord()` `Variable.CharNonWord()`	Creates a char random variable having a uniform distribution over all possible (lowercase, uppercase, letters, digits, letters and digits, word, non-word) characters.

String Operations

Operation	Syntax	Description
`Concat(string, string)` `Concat(string, char)` `Concat(char, string)`	a + b	Create a string random variable equal to the concatenation of its arguments.
Substring	`Variable.Substring(string str, int start, int length)`	Create a string random variable array by extracting a substring of a given string.
StringFormat	`Variable.StringFormat(string format, string[] args)`	Create a string random variable by replacing argument placeholders like {0}, {1} etc. in the provided format string with argument values, similar to what .NET string.Format does. For more information, see this page.