fitdistr for t distribution

Thanks Jorge,

but I still don't understand where they come from. ?when I use:
fitdistr(mydata, "t", df = 9) and get values for m and s, and the variance
of my data should be the df/s?

I jsut want to be able to confirm how m and s are calculated

I've wondered the same kind of thing and I've learned the answer is
easy!  It is not so easy for all R functions, but did you try this
with fitdistr?

library (MASS)
fitdistr

the output that follows is the ACTUAL FORMULA that is used to make the
calculations!

I've not yet mastered the art of getting code for some functions.

predict

function (object, ...)
UseMethod("predict")
<environment: namespace:stats>

But I know there is a way to get that code if you know the correct way
to run getS3method().  But I usually just go read the R source code
rather than puzzle over that.

mydt <- function(x, m, s, df) dt((x-m)/s, df)/s
fitdistr(x2, mydt, list(m = 0, s = 1), df = 9, lower = c(-Inf, 0))

Thanks anyway for the help!

Paul E. Johnson
Professor, Political Science
1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504
University of Kansas