[R] density() vs. KernSmooth::bkde

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On Mon, 18 Jan 2010, Mario Valle wrote:

> Any advice when to use denstity() and when the KernSmooth package bkde() to 
> smooth a histogram?
>
> No specific problem to use either one, but I'm curious why there are two so 
> similar implementations.

They are fundamentally different.  density() uses FFT: bkde() does 
not and is more flexible as a result  Both use binning.

There are only a limited number of ways to implement something as 
simple as KDE, and most of them have appeared in R/S-PLUS.  Remember 
that KernSmooth was written for S-PLUS and predates R (at least in 
anything like its current form).

> Thanks!
> 		mario
>
> -- 
> Ing. Mario Valle
> Data Analysis and Visualization Group            | http://www.cscs.ch/~mvalle
> Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS)      | Tel:  +41 (91) 610.82.60
> v. Cantonale Galleria 2, 6928 Manno, Switzerland | Fax:  +41 (91) 610.82.82
>
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-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595