How to fit polynomial to data with error bars

Question

I am currently using numpy.polyfit(x,y,deg) to fit a polynomial to experimental data. I would however like to fit a polynomial that uses weighting based on the errors of the poi

Answer 1

Here is how I did it, with lots of comments!

Note: I did it with qth and nth order polynomial fits.

from numpy import *
import pylab

# get data
fn = 'cooltemp.dat'
x, y, xerr, yerr = loadtxt(fn,unpack=True, usecols=[0,1,2,3])

# create nth degree polynomial fit
n = 1
zn = polyfit(x,y,n) 
pn = poly1d(zn) # construct polynomial 

# create qth degree polynomial fit
q = 5
zq = polyfit(x,y,q) 
pq = poly1d(zq)

# plot data and fit
xx = linspace(0, max(x), 500)
pylab.plot(xx, pn(xx),'-g', xx, pq(xx),'-b')
pylab.errorbar(x, y, xerr, yerr, fmt='r.')

# customise graph
pylab.legend(['degree '+str(n),'degree '+str(q),'data'])
pylab.axis([0,max(x),0,max(y)])
pylab.xlabel('x label (unit)')
pylab.ylabel('y label (unit)')

pylab.show()