Dear developers,

since running 'example(hist)' produces
...
hist> sum(r$density * diff(r$breaks)) # == 1
[1] 0.9999999
...
I suppose that the current behaviour of hist() is not as intended (and documented). So, please find attached (and inline below) a (trivial) patch for hist.default().

Best wishes
 Martin


Index: src/library/graphics/R/hist.R
===================================================================
--- src/library/graphics/R/hist.R    (revision 51652)
+++ src/library/graphics/R/hist.R    (working copy)
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@
    stop("negative 'counts'. Internal Error in C-code for \"bincount\"")
    if (sum(counts) < n)
    stop("some 'x' not counted; maybe 'breaks' do not span range of 'x'")
-    dens <- counts/(n*h)
+    dens <- counts/(n*diff(breaks))
    mids <- 0.5 * (breaks[-1L] + breaks[-nB])
    r <- structure(list(breaks = breaks, counts = counts,
            intensities = dens,



Martin Becker wrote:
Dear developers,

the current implementation of hist.default() calculates 'density' (and 'intensities') as
 dens <- counts/(n*h)
where h has been calculated before as
 h <- diff(fuzzybreaks)
which results in 'fuzzy' values for the density, see e.g.

> tmp <- hist(1:10,breaks=c(-2.5,2.5,7.5,12.5),plot=FALSE)
> print(tmp$density,digits=15)
[1] 0.0399999920000016 0.1000000000000000 0.0600000000000000

Since hist.default()$breaks are not the fuzzy breaks used for the calculation of dens, the sum of the bins' area is significantly different from 1 in many cases, see e.g.

> print(sum(tmp$density*diff(tmp$breaks)),digits=15)
[1] 0.999999960000008

Is this intended, or should the calculation of dens read
 dens <- counts/(n*diff(breaks))
instead (or should hist.default()$breaks return the fuzzy breaks)?

Best wishes
  Martin




--
Dr. Martin Becker
Statistics and Econometrics
Saarland University
Campus C3 1, Room 217
66123 Saarbruecken
Germany

Index: src/library/graphics/R/hist.R
===================================================================
--- src/library/graphics/R/hist.R       (revision 51652)
+++ src/library/graphics/R/hist.R       (working copy)
@@ -111,7 +111,7 @@
        stop("negative 'counts'. Internal Error in C-code for \"bincount\"")
     if (sum(counts) < n)
        stop("some 'x' not counted; maybe 'breaks' do not span range of 'x'")
-    dens <- counts/(n*h)
+    dens <- counts/(n*diff(breaks))
     mids <- 0.5 * (breaks[-1L] + breaks[-nB])
     r <- structure(list(breaks = breaks, counts = counts,
                        intensities = dens,
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