pdfLaplace#

Purpose#

Computes the probability density function for the Laplace distribution.

Format#

p = pdfLaplace(x, a, b)#
Parameters:
  • x (NxK matrix, Nx1 vector or scalar.) – data

  • a (scalar) – location parameter.

  • b (scalar) – scale parameter. b must be greater than 0.

Returns:

p (NxK matrix, Nx1 vector or scalar) – the probability density function for the Laplace distribution at the elements in x.

Remarks#

The probability density function for the Laplace distribution is defined as

\[f(x) = \frac{1}{2b} exp \bigg(- \frac{|x-a|}{b} \bigg)\]

Examples#

// Data points
x = { -2, -1, 0, 1, 2 };

// Laplace PDF with location = 0, scale = 1
p = pdfLaplace(x, 0, 1);
print p;

After the code above, p is equal to:

0.067667642
 0.18393972
 0.50000000
 0.18393972
0.067667642

See also

Functions cdfCauchy(), pdfCauchy()