R: Shannon's Entropy H(X)

H {philentropy} | R Documentation

## Shannon's Entropy H(X)

### Description

Compute the Shannon's Entropy H(X) = - ∑ P(X) * log2(P(X)) based on a given probability vector P(X).

### Usage

    H(x, unit = "log2")

### Arguments

`x` | a numeric probability vector P(X) for which Shannon's Entropy H(X) shall be computed.
`unit` | a character string specifying the logarithm unit that shall be used to compute distances that depend on log computations.

### Details

This function might be useful to fastly compute Shannon's Entropy for any given probability vector.

### Value

a numeric value representing Shannon's Entropy in bit.

### Author(s)

Hajk-Georg Drost

### References

Shannon, Claude E. 1948. "A Mathematical Theory of Communication". Bell System Technical Journal 27 (3): 379-423.

### See Also

`JE`, `CE`, `KL`, `JSD`, `gJSD`

### Examples

    H(1:10/sum(1:10))

[Package philentropy version 0.4.0 Index]