How to Add Linear Trendline that Considers Errorbars

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x = [662 1173 1332];
y = [654.3724 1124.827 1271.512];
yneg = [0.089207 0.799102 0.799102];
ypos = [0.089207 0.799102 0.799102];
xneg = [0.174485 1.796169 1.672245];
xpos = [0.174485 1.796169 1.672245];
errorbar(x,y,yneg,ypos,xneg,xpos)
Above is my code. I have three data points with errorbars. How can I add a special linear trendline (if there is such option for me) for the three points that takes into account the errorbars? In other words, it will be different from a regular trendline for the points without errorbars.
  2 Comments
Rik
Rik on 31 Mar 2017
I think you will either need the original dataset or you need to generate a dataset. But more important is the question what you mean with taking into account the errorbars.
Matlab_Student
Matlab_Student on 1 Apr 2017
Yes I am not making it clear. I was told that once you add the uncertainty to the data such as changing the point (1,500) to (1±0.01,500±2) the trendline will change.

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Answers (3)

Joseph Cheng
Joseph Cheng on 31 Mar 2017
Edited: Joseph Cheng on 31 Mar 2017
so if you want to take in the span of the error bars why not take into account the error bar points:
clf;
x = [1 2 3]';
y = [1 2 3]';
yneg = [.25 .1 .01];
ypos = [.15 .05 .01];
errorbar(x,y,yneg,ypos)
Ofitline = polyfit(x,y,1);
hold on, plot(x,polyval(Ofitline,x),'--b')
Errx = repmat(x,3,1);
Erry = [y; y-yneg';y+ypos'];
Efitline = polyfit(Errx,Erry,1);
hold on, plot(x,polyval(Efitline,x),'--r')
i did it in one position as i don't yet have the both direction error bars. but just fit a line with points at the bounds of the error bar. I did not include the original data as it can weight the answer in the positive or error bar.

DS
DS on 1 Oct 2018
Edited: DS on 1 Oct 2018
The error bars of your dataset represents a distribution of the data. I would suggest use the original data to fit the line. If you generate a set of data using your error bar, make sure that this new set of data represent the correct distribution of the original data. For example, if you just linspace(mean-error, mean+error, 100), these 100 points distribute evenly from mean-error to mean+error. But the thing is that, if your data follow a normal distribution (there are more data points close to the mean value), the evenly distributed data points from linspace() are NOT useful in the fitting.

Isabel Allegro
Isabel Allegro on 17 Mar 2023
Edited: Isabel Allegro on 4 Apr 2023

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