Fit

The fit command can fit a user-defined function to a set of data points (x,y) or (x,y,z), using an implementation of the nonlinear least-squares (NLLS) Marquardt-Levenberg algorithm. Any user-defined variable occurring in the function body may serve as a fit parameter, but the return type of the function must be real.

Syntax:

     fit {[xrange] {[yrange]}} <function> '<datafile>'
         {datafile-modifiers}
         via '<parameter file>' | <var1>{,<var2>,...}

Ranges may be specified to temporarily limit the data which is to be fitted; any out-of-range data points are ignored. The syntax is

     [{dummy_variable=}{<min>}{:<max>}],

analogous to plot; see plot ranges (p. ).

5#5function6#6 is any valid gnuplot expression, although it is usual to use a previously user-defined function of the form f(x) or f(x,y).

5#5datafile6#6 is treated as in the plot command. All the plot datafile modifiers (using, every,...) except smooth and the deprecated thru are applicable to fit. See plot datafile (p. ).

The default data formats for fitting functions with a single independent variable, y=f(x), are {x:}y or x:y:s; those formats can be changed with the datafile using qualifier. The third item (a column number or an expression), if present, is interpreted as the standard deviation of the corresponding y value and is used to compute a weight for the datum, 1/s**2. Otherwise, all data points are weighted equally, with a weight of one. Note that if you don't specify a using option at all, no y deviations are read from the datafile even if it does have a third column, so you'll always get unit weights.

To fit a function with two independent variables, z=f(x,y), the required format is using with four items, x:y:z:s. The complete format must be given -- no default columns are assumed for a missing token. Weights for each data point are evaluated from 's' as above. If error estimates are not available, a constant value can be specified as a constant expression (see plot datafile using (p. )), e.g., using 1:2:3:(1).

Multiple datasets may be simultaneously fit with functions of one independent variable by making y a 'pseudo-variable', e.g., the dataline number, and fitting as two independent variables. See fit multi-branch (p. ).

The via qualifier specifies which parameters are to be adjusted, either directly, or by referencing a parameter file.

Examples:

     f(x) = a*x**2 + b*x + c
     g(x,y) = a*x**2 + b*y**2 + c*x*y
     FIT_LIMIT = 1e-6
     fit f(x) 'measured.dat' via 'start.par'
     fit f(x) 'measured.dat' using 3:($7-5) via 'start.par'
     fit f(x) './data/trash.dat' using 1:2:3 via a, b, c
     fit g(x,y) 'surface.dat' using 1:2:3:(1) via a, b, c

After each iteration step, detailed information about the current state of the fit is written to the display. The same information about the initial and final states is written to a log file, "fit.log". This file is always appended to, so as to not lose any previous fit history; it should be deleted or renamed as desired. By using the command set fit logfile, the name of the log file can be changed.

If gnuplot was built with this option, and you activated it using set fit errorvariables, the error for each fitted parameter will be stored in a variable named like the parameter, but with "_err" appended. Thus the errors can be used as input for further computations.

The fit may be interrupted by pressing Ctrl-C (any key but Ctrl-C under MSDOS and Atari Multitasking Systems). After the current iteration completes, you have the option to (1) stop the fit and accept the current parameter values, (2) continue the fit, (3) execute a gnuplot command as specified by the environment variable FIT_SCRIPT. The default for FIT_SCRIPT is replot, so if you had previously plotted both the data and the fitting function in one graph, you can display the current state of the fit.

Once fit has finished, the update command may be used to store final values in a file for subsequent use as a parameter file. See update (p. ) for details.