spacepy.toolbox.binHisto

spacepy.toolbox.binHisto(data, verbose=False)[source]

Calculates bin width and number of bins for histogram using Freedman-Diaconis rule, if rule fails, defaults to square-root method

The Freedman-Diaconis method is detailed in:

Freedman, D., and P. Diaconis (1981), On the histogram as a density estimator: L2 theory, Z. Wahrscheinlichkeitstheor. Verw. Geb., 57, 453–476

and is also described by:

Wilks, D. S. (2006), Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences, 2nd ed.

Parameters:
dataarray_like

list/array of data values

verboseboolean (optional)

print out some more information

Returns:
outtuple

calculated width of bins using F-D rule, number of bins (nearest integer) to use for histogram

Examples

>>> import numpy, spacepy
>>> import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
>>> numpy.random.seed(8675301)
>>> data = numpy.random.randn(1000)
>>> binw, nbins = spacepy.toolbox.binHisto(data)
>>> print(nbins)
19
>>> p = plt.hist(data, bins=nbins, histtype='step', density=True)