Line fitting is the process of constructing a

straight line In geometry, a straight line, usually abbreviated line, is an infinitely long object with no width, depth, or curvature, an idealization of such physical objects as a straightedge, a taut string, or a ray of light. Lines are spaces of dimens ...

that has the best fit to a series of data points. Several methods exist, considering: *Vertical distance:

Simple linear regression In statistics, simple linear regression (SLR) is a linear regression model with a single explanatory variable. That is, it concerns two-dimensional sample points with one independent variable and one dependent variable (conventionally, the ''x ...

*Resistance to

outliers In statistics, an outlier is a data point that differs significantly from other observations. An outlier may be due to a variability in the measurement, an indication of novel data, or it may be the result of experimental error; the latter ar ...

: Robust simple linear regression *

Perpendicular distance In geometry, the perpendicular distance between two objects is the distance from one to the other, measured along a line that is perpendicular to one or both. The distance from a point to a line is the distance to the nearest point on that lin ...

: Orthogonal regression (this is not scale-invariant i.e. changing the measurement units leads to a different line.) *Weighted geometric distance: Deming regression *Scale invariant approach:

Major axis regression In applied statistics, total least squares is a type of errors-in-variables regression, a least squares data modeling technique in which observational errors on both dependent and independent variables are taken into account. It is a generalizat ...

This allows for measurement error in both variables, and gives an equivalent equation if the measurement units are altered.

See also

Further reading