Solved – Normalize non-normal distribution

I have a query regarding a comment I found, which will surely shed some light.
In this article: http://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2015/09/naive-bayes-explained/

I found:

If continuous features do not have normal distribution, we should use transformation or different methods to convert it in normal distribution.

Can this be done? I can only think of having a non-normal distribution being a sum of several Gaussian distributions, but found no evidence of this.

You can transform your variable with a probability integral transform into a variable having uniform distribution, than convert it back to one having a Gaussian distribution with the inverse Gaussian cumulative distribution function. You can do it also in an empirical setting where you replace the probability integral transform by the rank transform.

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Solved – Normalize non-normal distribution

I have a query regarding a comment I found, which will surely shed some light.
In this article: http://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2015/09/naive-bayes-explained/

I found:

If continuous features do not have normal distribution, we should use transformation or different methods to convert it in normal distribution.

Can this be done? I can only think of having a non-normal distribution being a sum of several Gaussian distributions, but found no evidence of this.

Best Answer

You can transform your variable with a probability integral transform into a variable having uniform distribution, than convert it back to one having a Gaussian distribution with the inverse Gaussian cumulative distribution function. You can do it also in an empirical setting where you replace the probability integral transform by the rank transform.

Similar Posts:

Rate this post

Leave a Comment