approach value to 1

I have a variable that represents a double value in the range between 0 and 1. This variable should increase (i.e. come closer to 1) everytime a certain event occurs (say, a user clicks).

How (mathematically) would I calculate the variable, so that it comes closer to 1 everytime the event happens? This is probably pretty easy, but I'm lost here...

The problem I have is that I don't have the overall number of events (n) that already occured, but only the current value (v) of the variable. Otherwise I could calculate v = 1-1*n.

Thanks for your hints!

How (mathematically) would I calculate the variable, so that it comes closer to 1 everytime the event happens? This is probably pretty easy, but I'm lost here...

This is a weird requirement. You need to get closer to one, but you don't care how you approach it?

How about...

new_value = prev_value + ((1 - prev_value) / 1000);

Of course, the precision of a double isn't infinite. And it will eventually become one.

Henry

Well, you could add half the remaining interval every time an event occurs:

x += (1 - x)/2.0

Lukas Benberg wrote:
The problem I have is that I don't have the overall number of events (n) that already occured, but only the current value (v) of the variable. Otherwise I could calculate v = 1-1*n.

I don't think that'd return a value between 0 and 1..... What use would (1-n) be?

I mean, n being an integer....

Thank you all,
I think this is what I had in my mind: x += (1 - x)/2.0 .

Henry, for the moment I don't care _how_ I approach 1. Later, this may become relevant. I will have to think about your hint.

Prabz, you are right, what I actually meant was: v = 1-1/n

i think however you do it, you will have a limit to how many clicks they can make. at some point, you will hit the limit on the precision of a float/long, and you're done.

can you perhaps better explain the larger problem? Maybe there is a better solution...

Hi Fred,
the context is: I want to calculate something like the user's "preferences" for "items" from data I have. for further analysis, all preference values have to be between 0 and 1 (or alternatively between -1 and 1). I don't know in advance the final "preference" value, because preferences may increase later. also, the number of "items" may change later.