How to compute Cost function for linear regression

51 views (last 30 days)
Hi,
I am trying to compute cost function
I am using the following code:
function J = computeCost(X, y, theta)
%COMPUTECOST Compute cost for linear regression
% J = COMPUTECOST(X, y, theta) computes the cost of using theta as the
% parameter for linear regression to fit the data points in X and y
% Initialize some useful values
m = length(y); % number of training examples
% You need to return the following variables correctly
J = 0;
% ====================== YOUR CODE HERE ======================
% Instructions: Compute the cost of a particular choice of theta
% You should set J to the cost.
h = X * theta;
sError = (h - y) .^ 2;
J = sum(sError) / (2 * m);
% =========================================================================
end
.But I am getting the following error
Error in computeCost (line 7)
m = length(y); % number of training examples
.Please help
  6 Comments
Muhammad Kundi
Muhammad Kundi on 23 Jun 2019
sorry...I forgot to mention...I just hit run to execute the program and I get this error message..
Do I have to run the function by inserting the values of x,y and theta???

Sign in to comment.

Answers (10)

João Marlon Souto Ferraz
João Marlon Souto Ferraz on 14 Sep 2020
I believe than this is happen because you are running and trying to compile the function. Just save and to call than function from the other script.

Mahdi Badriyan
Mahdi Badriyan on 25 May 2020
hi
J = sum(sError) / (2 .* m);
in this way your code will be corrected.

Sanskar Choudhary
Sanskar Choudhary on 28 Dec 2021
open file submit.m and then run it.(don't run computeCost.m file, this will not work because its just function)

Ghayyur Abbas
Ghayyur Abbas on 29 Aug 2019
initialize x y theta with values in the function

Heng Dao
Heng Dao on 6 Feb 2021
((h)-y).^2 Try try hope can help u

Prasad Kute
Prasad Kute on 23 Jul 2021
function J = computeCost(X, y, theta)
%COMPUTECOST Compute cost for linear regression
% J = COMPUTECOST(X, y, theta) computes the cost of using theta as the
% parameter for linear regression to fit the data points in X and y
% Initialize some useful values
m = length(y); % number of training examples
% You need to return the following variables correctly
J = 0;
% ====================== YOUR CODE HERE ======================
% Instructions: Compute the cost of a particular choice of theta
% You should set J to the cost.
J = (1/(2*m))*sum(((X*theta) - y).^2)
Try this, you will get it correct.

Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 4 Feb 2022
You say "sorry...I forgot to mention...I just hit run to execute the program and I get this error message.."
Well that is the whole problem. When you have a function that expects inputs like X, y, theta then you need to supply those inputs. You can't just click the green run triangle and expect somehow that doing that will automagically invent values for X, y, and theta. So you need to do something like
% Declare inputs:
X = rand(1,10);
y = rand(1, 10);
theta = 42;
% Now run the function:
result = computeCost(X, y, theta)
fprintf('Done with the program!\n');
%==========================================================================================
% Define the function:
function J = computeCost(X, y, theta)
%COMPUTECOST Compute cost for linear regression
% J = COMPUTECOST(X, y, theta) computes the cost of using theta as the
% parameter for linear regression to fit the data points in X and y
% Initialize some useful values
m = length(y); % number of training examples
% You need to return the following variables correctly
J = 0;
% ====================== YOUR CODE HERE ======================
% Instructions: Compute the cost of a particular choice of theta
% You should set J to the cost.
h = X * theta;
sError = (h - y) .^ 2;
J = sum(sError) / (2 * m);
end

Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 6 Feb 2022
As long as y is defined (like you assigned something to y before you called the function) then that line
m = length(y); % number of training examples
should work. However you didn't give the entire error message. You gave the line the error occurred on but not the actual error description. Why not? You need to include all the red text, not just some of it.
By the way you need to assign something for y, you can't just click the green Run triangle on the toolbar without assigning all the input variables.

Jia He
Jia He on 6 Feb 2022
If you meet errors in submitting, and your function is correct. Try to delete its .mlx file and submit it again.

MAZEN ALHARBI
MAZEN ALHARBI on 5 Apr 2022
function J = computeCost(X, y, theta)
%COMPUTECOST Compute cost for linear regression
% J = COMPUTECOST(X, y, theta) computes the cost of using theta as the
% parameter for linear regression to fit the data points in X and y
% Initialize some useful values
% number of training examples
% You need to return the following variables correctly
data = load('ex1data1.txt'); % read comma separated data
y = data(:, 2);
m = length(y); % number of training examples
X = [ones(m, 1), data(:,1)]; % Add a column of ones to x
theta = zeros(2, 1);
% ====================== YOUR CODE HERE ======================
% Instructions: Compute the cost of a particular choice of theta
% You should set J to the cost.
J = 0;
J = 1/(2*m) * (X * theta - y)' * (X * theta - y); % vectorized form
% =========================================================================
end

Products

Community Treasure Hunt

Find the treasures in MATLAB Central and discover how the community can help you!

Start Hunting!