setting upper and lower limits in rnorm

Question

I am simulating data using rnorm, but I need to set an upper and lower limit, does anyone know how to do this?

code:

rnorm(n = 10, mean = 39.74, sd =         


        

Answer 1

The rtruncnorm() function will return the results you need.

  library(truncnorm)
  rtruncnorm(n=10, a=0, b=340, mean=39.4, sd=25.09)

Answer 2

You can make your own truncated normal sampler that doesn't require you to throw out observations quite simply

rtnorm <- function(n, mean, sd, a = -Inf, b = Inf){
    qnorm(runif(n, pnorm(a, mean, sd), pnorm(b, mean, sd)), mean, sd)
}

Answer 3

Like this?

mysamp <- function(n, m, s, lwr, upr, nnorm) {
  samp <- rnorm(nnorm, m, s)
  samp <- samp[samp >= lwr & samp <= upr]
  if (length(samp) >= n) {
    return(sample(samp, n))
  }  
  stop(simpleError("Not enough values to sample from. Try increasing nnorm."))
}

set.seed(42)
mysamp(n=10, m=39.74, s=25.09, lwr=0, upr=340, nnorm=1000)
#[1] 58.90437 38.72318 19.64453 20.24153 39.41130 12.80199 59.88558 30.88578 19.66092 32.46025

However, the result is not normal distributed and usually won't have the mean and sd you've specified (in particular if the limits are not symmetric around the specified mean).

Edit:

According to your comment it seems you want to translate this SAS function. I am not an SAS user, but this should do more or less the same:

mysamp <- function(n, m, s, lwr, upr, rounding) {
  samp <- round(rnorm(n, m, s), rounding)
  samp[samp < lwr] <- lwr
  samp[samp > upr] <- upr
  samp
}

set.seed(8)
mysamp(n=10, m=39.74, s=25.09, lwr=0, upr=340, rounding=3)
#[1] 37.618 60.826 28.111 25.920 58.207 37.033 35.467 12.434  0.000 24.857

You may then want to use replicate to run the simulations. Or if you want faster code:

sim <- matrix(mysamp(n=10*10, m=39.74, s=25.09, lwr=0, upr=340, rounding=3), 10)
means <- colMeans(sim)
sds <- apply(sim, 2, sd)

Answer 4

This is the function that I wrote to achieve the same purpose. It normalizes the result from the rnorm function and then adjusts it to fit the range.

NOTE: The standard deviation and mean (if specified) get altered during the normalization process.

#' Creates a random normal distribution within the specified bounds.
#' 
#' WARNING: This function does not preserve the standard deviation or mean.
#' @param n The number of values to be generated
#' @param mean The mean of the distribution
#' @param sd The standard deviation of the distribution
#' @param lower The lower limit of the distribution
#' @param upper The upper limit of the distribution
rtnorm <- function(n, mean=NA, sd=1, lower=-1, upper=1){
  mean = ifelse(is.na(mean)|| mean < lower || mean > upper,
                mean(c(lower, upper)), mean)
  data <- rnorm(n, mean=m, sd=sd) # data

  if (!is.na(lower) && !is.na(upper)){ # adjust data to specified range
    drange <- range(data)           # data range
    irange <- range(lower, upper)   # input range
    data <- (data - drange[1])/(drange[2] - drange[1]) # normalize data (make it 0 to 1)
    data <- (data * (irange[2] - irange[1]))+irange[1] # adjust to specified range
  }
  return(data)
}

Answer 5

Assuming you want exactly 10 numbers and not the subset of them that is >0, <340 (and night not be a normal distribution):

    aa <- rnorm(n = 10, mean = 39.74, s = 25.09)

    while(any(aa<0 | aa>340)) { aa <- rnorm(n = 10, mean = 39.74, s = 25.09) }