scipy.stats.skew

scipy.stats.skew(a, axis=0, bias=True)

Computes the skewness of a data set.

For normally distributed data, the skewness should be about 0. A skewness value > 0 means that there is more weight in the left tail of the distribution. The function skewtest can be used to determine if the skewness value is close enough to 0, statistically speaking.

Parameters:

• a (ndarray) -- data
• axis (int or None) -- axis along which skewness is calculated
• bias (bool) -- If False, then the calculations are corrected for statistical bias.

Returns:

skewness -- The skewness of values along an axis, returning 0 where all values are equal.

Return type:

ndarray

References

[CRCProbStat2000] Section 2.2.24.1

[CRCProbStat2000]

Zwillinger, D. and Kokoska, S. (2000). CRC Standard Probability and Statistics Tables and Formulae. Chapman & Hall: New York. 2000.