Linear least squares (LLS) is the least squares approximation of linear functions to data. It is a set of formulations for solving statistical problems involved in linear regression, including variants for ordinary (unweighted), weighted, and generalized (correlated) residuals. Numerical methods for linear least squares include inverting the matrix of the normal equations and orthogonal decomposition methods. The three main linear least squares formulations are: Ordinary least squares (OLS) is the most common estimator.
La méthode des moindres carrés, indépendamment élaborée par Legendre et Gauss au début du , permet de comparer des données expérimentales, généralement entachées d’erreurs de mesure, à un modèle mathématique censé décrire ces données. Ce modèle peut prendre diverses formes. Il peut s’agir de lois de conservation que les quantités mesurées doivent respecter. La méthode des moindres carrés permet alors de minimiser l’impact des erreurs expérimentales en « ajoutant de l’information » dans le processus de mesure.
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 generalization of Deming regression and also of orthogonal regression, and can be applied to both linear and non-linear models. The total least squares approximation of the data is generically equivalent to the best, in the Frobenius norm, low-rank approximation of the data matrix.
Weighted least squares (WLS), also known as weighted linear regression, is a generalization of ordinary least squares and linear regression in which knowledge of the unequal variance of observations (heteroscedasticity) is incorporated into the regression. WLS is also a specialization of generalized least squares, when all the off-diagonal entries of the covariance matrix of the errors, are null.
In statistics, least-angle regression (LARS) is an algorithm for fitting linear regression models to high-dimensional data, developed by Bradley Efron, Trevor Hastie, Iain Johnstone and Robert Tibshirani. Suppose we expect a response variable to be determined by a linear combination of a subset of potential covariates. Then the LARS algorithm provides a means of producing an estimate of which variables to include, as well as their coefficients.
