Histograms are a convenient way of summarizing large data sets. At a glance, they give us a way to approximate the distribution of numerical data. This is done by collecting the data in to bins of equal width, and then counting the number of data points that fall in each bin. This begs the question, how many bins should one use? If we had n data points, then a commonly used estimate for the number if bins, k, is
k = ⌈√ n ⌉
To use the histogram calculator below, input your sample data as a comma separated list and hit go! The code will use the square-root choice for the number of bins and compute the histogram.
x:
Histogram type : , Number of bins :
