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I need to plot the empirical pdf of the data:

X = [8.13010235400000,13.6713071300000,14.0362434700000,18.4349488200000,26.5650511800000,30.9637565300000,34.3803447200000,40.6012946500000,45,49.3987053500000,58.6713071300000,59.0362434700000,59.0362434700000,59.0362434700000,61.9275130600000,61.9275130600000,63.4349488200000,63.4349488200000,63.4349488200000,63.4349488200000,63.4349488200000,64.4400348300000,71.5650511800000,71.5650511800000,71.5650511800000,71.5650511800000,75.9637565300000,75.9637565300000,75.9637565300000,75.9637565300000,75.9637565300000,75.9637565300000,75.9637565300000,75.9637565300000,75.9637565300000,75.9637565300000,77.4711922900000,77.4711922900000,77.4711922900000,77.4711922900000,77.4711922900000,77.4711922900000,77.4711922900000,77.4711922900000,77.4711922900000,78.6900675300000,90,90,90,90,90,90,90,90,90,90,90,90,90,90,90,93.1798301200000,97.1250163500000,97.7651660200000,102.528807700000,102.528807700000,102.528807700000,102.528807700000,102.528807700000,104.036243500000,104.036243500000,104.036243500000,104.036243500000,104.036243500000,104.036243500000,104.036243500000,105.255118700000,108.434948800000,108.434948800000,108.434948800000,108.434948800000,109.440034800000,116.565051200000,118.072486900000,120.963756500000,127.746805400000,130.601294600000,135,137.489552900000,139.398705400000,139.398705400000,149.036243500000,153.434948800000,159.227745300000,161.565051200000,179.999998800000,180];

I do this in Matlab as follows:

[count, bins] = hist(X, 6);
normcount     = count/sum(count);

figure, scatter(bins, normcount)
hold on;
plot(bins, normcount)

I notice the appearance of the plot changes with manual selection of bins.

My question then is: Is there any such thing as an ‘optimum’ bin size... and if there is, how do I determine it?

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1 Answer 1

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This article will give you a starting point (including MATLAB code in the Appendix) for solving your problem: https://arxiv.org/pdf/physics/0605197.pdf.

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  • $\begingroup$ Thank you @Isabella. I would go through it asap. May i ask if you have an idea if this is the same algorithm Matlab uses for determining the default bin size? $\endgroup$
    – oma11
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 15:11
  • $\begingroup$ No, this seems to be a different algorithm. You can check the results it produces against those produced by the default from Matlab. $\endgroup$
    – Isabella Ghement
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 15:22
  • $\begingroup$ That's a good reference! But as it stands, this is more a comment than an answer; at least an overview of what approach the paper takes would be very helpful. $\endgroup$
    – Scortchi ♦
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 16:30
  • $\begingroup$ Thank you again @ISabella. I will eventually do as you've said, but actually I thought i'd be able to have a look at the algorithm matlab uses to produce its automatic binning. I'm still searching for this... do you by chance know how i could find it? $\endgroup$
    – oma11
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 17:06
  • $\begingroup$ I don't but you could contact Matlab's support to find out: mathworks.com/support/contact_us.html. $\endgroup$
    – Isabella Ghement
    Commented Mar 25, 2018 at 22:01

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