Line fitting is the process of constructing a

straight line In geometry, a line is an infinitely long object with no width, depth, or curvature. Thus, lines are one-dimensional objects, though they may exist in two, three, or higher dimension spaces. The word ''line'' may also refer to a line segment ...

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 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'' an ...

**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 a ...

: Robust simple linear regression * Perpendicular distance: Orthogonal regression **Weighted geometric distance:

Deming regression In statistics, Deming regression, named after W. Edwards Deming, is an errors-in-variables model which tries to find the line of best fit for a two-dimensional dataset. It differs from the simple linear regression in that it accounts for erro ...

Scale invariance In physics, mathematics and statistics, scale invariance is a feature of objects or laws that do not change if scales of length, energy, or other variables, are multiplied by a common factor, and thus represent a universality. The technical te ...

: Major axis regression

See also

Further reading