Re: st: Why is Mata much slower than MATLAB at matrix inversion?

[Patrick Roland <patrick.rolande@gmail.com>]

The matrix formation takes a negligible amount of time. luinv() seems
to be (much) faster than cholinv() even for positive definite
matrices. Here's the code I used to check:

timer_clear()
mata
m = runiform(2000,2000)
j = m*m'
timer_on(1)
h = cholinv(j)
timer_off(1)
timer_on(2)
p = luinv(j)
timer_off(2)
timer()


On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 11:57 AM, Richard Herron
<richard.c.herron@gmail.com> wrote:
> -cholinv()- would be faster if you met the symmetric, positive
> definite requirement. I am also surprised that Mata isn't competitive
> with Matlab on matrix inversion (I thought they all used the same
> algorithms).
>
> Have you tried taking the matrix generation step out of the timing
> block? Is there a chance that the matrix formation process if
> different between the two (Sorry, I don't have Stata and Matlab
> installs handy).
>
> Richard Herron
>
>
> On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 2:50 PM, Patrick Roland
> <patrick.rolande@gmail.com> wrote:
>> luinv() takes about 15 times longer than MATLAB's inverse function.
>> Maybe I'm being naive, but why wouldn't all serious matrix languages
>> invert matrices at roughly the same speed? Don't they use the same
>> linear algebra routines?
>>
>> Another curiosity is that the luinv() is more general and faster. Why
>> would anyone want to use cholinv()?
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 20, 2012 at 9:17 AM, Richard Herron
>> <richard.c.herron@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Patrick, -cholinv()- requires a symmetric positive definite matrix,
>>> but I don't think you M matrix is PD. Try -luinv()-.
>>>
>>> Although for most use cases your matrix will be symmetric, right? Then
>>> you should use -invsym()- or a solve function.
>>>
>>> Richard Herron
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 9:22 PM, Patrick Roland
>>> <patrick.rolande@gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I'm comparing two code snippets. In Mata:
>>>>
>>>> mata
>>>> timer_on(1)
>>>> M = rnormal(2000,2000,0,1)
>>>> J = cholinv(M)
>>>> timer_off(1)
>>>> timer()
>>>> end
>>>>
>>>> In MATLAB:
>>>>
>>>> tic;
>>>> M = normrnd(0,1,2000,2000);
>>>> J = inv(M);
>>>> toc;
>>>>
>>>> I find that MATLAB is about 20 times faster (1.5 seconds vs 30
>>>> seconds). Is there something I'm missing here, or is MATLAB just much
>>>> faster at matrix inversion? I'd much prefer to use Mata because of
>>>> integration with Stata, but if the speed difference is going to be on
>>>> this order then MATLAB is more attractive.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Any input here is appreciated.
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