How to fit a histogram using Python

Question

This is the histogram I am generating:

H=hist(my_data,bins=my_bin,histtype='step',color='r')

You can observe that the shape is sort of gaussian. But my requirement is that I want to fit this with a gaussian function and print the value of the mean and sigma. How can this be done? 

Appreciate the help!

Answer 1

Here is an example working on py2.6 and py3.2:

from scipy.stats import norm
import matplotlib.mlab as mlab
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

# read data from a text file. One number per line
arch = "test/Log(2)_ACRatio.txt"
datos = []
for item in open(arch,'r'):
    item = item.strip()
    if item != '':
        try:
            datos.append(float(item))
        except ValueError:
            pass

# best fit of data
(mu, sigma) = norm.fit(datos)

# the histogram of the data
n, bins, patches = plt.hist(datos, 60, normed=1, facecolor='green', alpha=0.75)

# add a 'best fit' line
y = mlab.normpdf( bins, mu, sigma)
l = plt.plot(bins, y, 'r--', linewidth=2)

#plot
plt.xlabel('Smarts')
plt.ylabel('Probability')
plt.title(r'$\mathrm{Histogram\ of\ IQ:}\ \mu=%.3f,\ \sigma=%.3f$' %(mu, sigma))
plt.grid(True)

plt.show()

Cheers!