Slice a skewed distribution into buckets with equal populations

equi_buckets.R

#' num_bkts should be a non-zero integer
#' col should contain numeric values
equi_bucket <- function(col, num_bkts){
  
  if(!is.numeric(col)){
    warning("Values passed to Equibucket are not numeric")
    return(NA)
  }  
  xmin = min(col, na.rm = TRUE)
  eps = 1/(num_bkts-1)
  zo_intervals <- seq(0,1, eps)
  buckets <- unname(quantile(col, zo_intervals, 
                             na.rm = TRUE))
  rng <- range(col, na.rm=TRUE)[2] - 
    range(col, na.rm=TRUE)[1]
  
  return( (buckets - xmin)/rng)
  
  
  }

res <- equi_bucket(test, 5)
res