I might be misunderstanding something, but this seems much more complex than systematic sampling, which is well understood even in the case where the number of records (read: population size) is unknown (this situation occurs in quality control on an assembly line).
Can anyone comment on why this reservoir method would be a better choice than the old fashioned systematic sample? (which, BTW, only requires the generation of one random number to determine the starting record).
Can anyone comment on why this reservoir method would be a better choice than the old fashioned systematic sample? (which, BTW, only requires the generation of one random number to determine the starting record).