Sourcing a random number from a data-driven distribution

Hi all,

Suppose I have data from an arbitrary time series, say X(t). Before analyzing X(t) I want to perform some studies just on the distribution of X with no temporal information involved. I have been asked to create a bunch of pseudo-data sets which look like the distribution of X so that I can create pseudo-data time series, lets call them Y(t) which look like X(t) but aren’t real data.

The problem I have then is that I want to somehow randomly generate the Y-distribution pulled from a distribution based on the true X values. In my case the X values don’t resemble something like a Gaussian or Binomial or any of the other predefined distributions that TRandom can pull from. I know that TRandom can pull from a user defined TF1, 2, or 3 but is there a way I can supply TRandom my data histogram (of the distribution of X values) and for it to then use THAT to create the random Y values? Or is my only option to try and approximate the X distribution as best as possible with a TFunction?

I hope this wasn’t too confusing but any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,
John

Hi John,

did you try the GetRandom method?
https://root.cern.ch/doc/master/classTH1.html#a2092ce89680081bad365af46e7d192cc

Cheers,
D

1 Like

This is exactly what I needed! I had been looking in the TRandom class instead though. Thank you very much D!

Cheers,
John

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