Determining probability mass function of random variable

Question

If we have a discrete random variable x and the data pertaining to it in X(n), how in matlab can we determine the probability mass function pmf(X)?

Answer 1

You can do this in at least eight different ways (some of them were already mentioned in the other solutions).

Say we have a sample from a discrete random variable:

X = randi([-9 9], [100 1]);

Consider these equivalent solutions (note that I don't assume anything about the range of possible values, just that they are integers):

[V,~,labels] = grp2idx(X);
mx = max(V);

%# TABULATE (internally uses HIST)
t = tabulate(V);
pmf1 = t(:, 3) ./ 100;

%# HIST (internally uses HISTC)
pmf2 = hist(V, mx)' ./ numel(V);                      %#'

%# HISTC
pmf3 = histc(V, 1:mx) ./ numel(V);

%# ACCUMARRAY
pmf4 = accumarray(V, 1) ./ numel(V);

%# SORT/FIND/DIFF
pmf5 = diff( find( [diff([0;sort(V)]) ; 1] ) ) ./ numel(V);

%# SORT/UNIQUE/DIFF
[~,idx] = unique( sort(V) );
pmf6 = diff([0;idx]) ./ numel(V);

%# ARRAYFUN
pmf7 = arrayfun(@(x) sum(V==x), 1:mx)' ./ numel(V);   %#'

%# BSXFUN
pmf8 = sum( bsxfun(@eq, V, 1:mx) )' ./ numel(V);      %#'

note that GRP2IDX was used to get indices starting at 1 corresponding to the entries of pmf (the mapping is given by labels). The result of the above is:

>> [labels pmf]
ans =
           -9         0.03
           -8         0.07
           -7         0.04
           -6         0.07
           -5         0.03
           -4         0.06
           -3         0.05
           -2         0.05
           -1         0.06
            0         0.05
            1         0.04
            2         0.07
            3         0.03
            4         0.09
            5         0.08
            6         0.02
            7         0.03
            8         0.08
            9         0.05