pd = makedist (distname) creates a probability distribution object for the distribution specified in distname, using the default parameter values.

pd = makedist (distname, Name, Value) also creates a probability distribution object with one or more distribution parameter values specified by Name-Value pair arguments.

list = makedist returns a cell array, list, containing a list of the probability distributions that makedist can create.

Distribution names are matched ignoring case, spaces and hyphens, so that 'Extreme Value', 'ExtremeValue' and 'extreme-value' all select the same distribution, and the same set of names is accepted by cdf, pdf, icdf, random, makedist, fitdist and mle.

This accepts more names than MATLAB. MATLAB takes the spaced and the squashed spelling but refuses the hyphenated one, so 'Birnbaum-Saunders' and 'Log-Logistic' are errors there; Octave has always accepted them and continues to. MATLAB also accepts 'tLocationScale' in makedist while refusing it in cdf for the same distribution; Octave accepts it, and 'location-scale T', everywhere. Code written against MATLAB’s names therefore runs unchanged, but code relying on these names will not port back.

See also: fitdist

Source Code: makedist