[R] Optimization to fit data to custom density distribution

[Prof Brian Ripley]

On 21/03/2015 14:27, Johannes Radinger wrote:
> Thanks for the fast response. The fitdistr() function works well for the
> predefined density functions. However, what is the recommended approach
> to optimize/fit a density function described by two superimposed normal
> distributions? In my case it is N1(mean=0,sd1)*p+N2(mean=0,sd2)*(1-p).
> With fitdistr one can only choose among the 15 distributions. Probably

That is simply not true.  The help says

densfun: Either a character string or a function returning a density
           evaluated at its first argument.

and the second alternative is used in the examples.

> this needs an approach using optim()? However I am so far unfamiliar
> with these packages. So any suggestion ist welcome. :)

There are examples of that in MASS (the book), chapter 16.

>
> /Johannes
>
> On Sat, Mar 21, 2015 at 2:16 PM, Prof Brian Ripley
> <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk <mailto:ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk>> wrote:
>
>     One way using the standard R distribution:
>
>     library(MASS)
>     ?fitdistr
>
>     No optimization is needed to fit a normal distribution, though.
>
>
>     On 21/03/2015 13:05, Johannes Radinger wrote:
>
>         Hi,
>
>         I am looking for a way to fit data (vector of values) to a
>         density function
>         using an optimization (ordinary least squares or maximum
>         likelihood fit).
>         For example if I have a vector of 100 values generated with rnorm:
>
>         rnorm(n=100,mean=500,sd=50)
>
>         How can I fit these data to a Gaussian density function to
>         extract the mean
>         and sd value of the underlying normal distribution. So the
>         result should
>         roughly meet the parameters of the normal distribution used to
>         generate the
>         data. The results will ideally be closer the true parameters the
>         more data
>         (n) are used to optimize the density function.
>
>
>     That's a concept called 'consistency' from the statistical theory of
>     estimation.  If you skipped that course, time to read up (but it is
>     off-topic here).
>
>     --
>     Brian D. Ripley, ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk <mailto:ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk>
>     Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, University of Oxford
>     1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK
>
>


-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, University of Oxford
1 South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3TG, UK