Question

I am interested in frequency distributions that are not normally distributed.
If I have a frequency distributions table which is not normally distributed.
Is there a function or package that will identify the type of distribution for me?

Answer 1

You can use the fitdistr function (library MASS i think) and check for yourself if you find a ‘fitting’ distribution. However i suggest that you plot the function first and see how it looks like. This approach is generally not recommended as you always can use different parameters to fit a distribution and thus confuse one distribution with another. If you have found a suited distribution you should test it against data.

Edit: For instance a normal distribution may look like a poisson distribution. Fitting is in my oppinion only useful if you have enough random variables. Otherwise just draw variables from your data if you need to