Using histogram() data without plotting or calculating the figure.

Hi, this is my first post here.

I really need to optimize a function so as to make it as fast as possible. In it, I use the histogram function. All I need is the histogram().Values and histogram().BinEdges data. I don't need to plot anything and I need to keep the computation time to the bare minimum. The code I use is roughly:

fig=figure; set(fig,'visible','off');
H=histogram(...);
h=H.Values;
b=H.BinEdges;
% Some data treatment
%%%%
close(fig);

By doing 'tic-tocs' I found out that these precise lines were taking up 90% of the execution time. Is there any way to have access to the histogram data without opening a figure, or any other way of optimizing time ? I mean not opening a figure at all, not just hiding it, as I've already done that.

Thanks in advance !

[Erik Lindskog]

Possibly a different way to compute a histogram without plotting a figure is to use the function histcounts to compute the histogram counts and edges. Later the histogram can then be plotted with the histogram function.

E.g.:

[counts, edges] = histcounts(data, 100) % Computes the histogram counts and edges for 'data' without plotting

...

histogram('BinEdges', edges, 'BinCounts', counts) % Plots a histogram with edges 'edges' and counts 'counts'.

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

If you only want the histogram values and not the plot, use the histcounts (or histc) functions.

[Thomas Houllier]

Great ! It was exactly the data I needed. It divided the computation time by 10 on the histogram, and that of my whole program by more than 2. Thank you !

[Star Strider]

My pleasure!

[Amir Pasha Zamani]

But these functions do not provide the edges :(

[Steven Lord]

The second output from histcounts contains the edges.

[Amir Pasha Zamani]

Thanks Star

I have the same problem with my codes efficiency

But even with histcount the code is still slow