Institut für Astronomie und AstrophysikAbteilung AstronomieWaldhäuser Str. 64, D-72076 Tübingen, Germany |
SIXLIN
Compute linear regression coefficients by six different methods.
Adapted from the FORTRAN program (Rev. 1.1) supplied by Isobe, Feigelson, Akritas, and Babu Ap. J. Vol. 364, p. 104 (1990). Suggested when there is no understanding about the nature of the scatter about a linear relation, and NOT when the errors in the variable are calculable.
SIXLIN, xx, yy, a, siga, b, sigb
XX - vector of X values YY - vector of Y values, same number of elements as XX
A - Vector of 6 Y intercept coefficients SIGA - Vector of standard deviations of 6 Y intercepts B - Vector of 6 slope coefficients SIGB - Vector of standard deviations of slope coefficients The output variables are computed using linear regression for each of the following 6 cases: (0) Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) Y vs. X (1) Ordinary Least Squares X vs. Y (2) Ordinary Least Squares Bisector (3) Orthogonal Reduced Major Axis (4) Reduced Major-Axis (5) Mean ordinary Least Squares
Isobe et al. make the following recommendations (1) If the different linear regression methods yield similar results then quoting OLS(Y|X) is probably the most familiar. (2) If the linear relation is to be used to predict Y vs. X then OLS(Y|X) should be used. (3) If the goal is to determine the functional relationship between X and Y then the OLS bisector is recommended.
Written Wayne Landsman February, 1991 Corrected sigma calculations February, 1992 Converted to IDL V5.0 W. Landsman September 1997
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