# Normalizing data between 0 and 1

I've got some data that I need to be normalized. I've tried several different ways I've found online, none of them work the way I'd like. I've tried (x - mean) / standard_deviation, where x is my value. I've also tried (x - min) / (min - max) as seen here. Those two seem to be the 2 standard way of normalizing data that I've seen.

What I'd like is to normalize the data between 1 and 0, cut it off at 3 decimal places, and still have a data make sense. Right now the numbers at the top are so large that they throw everything else off. The first 3 numbers are .8 somethings, but this it quickly drops off to .2 somethings and .1 somethings.

Any suggestions?

• Would it make sense to look at the Log of the data? – Ron Gordon Apr 23 '13 at 13:06
• That helps, leaving the data looking like: pastebin.com/SRtDHpvm – sivSivSG Apr 23 '13 at 13:20
• How would you suggest to then make it fall into nice .9** .8** .7** .6** ... buckets? – sivSivSG Apr 23 '13 at 13:21
• I'd be more interested in the trend of the data. It looks linear to me - is it? That might help guide you. – Ron Gordon Apr 23 '13 at 13:22
• Nah, it's not. There's still this long tail of small values, with a head of larger values above 10. – sivSivSG Apr 23 '13 at 13:24