FindPeaks
✖
FindPeaks
Details and Options


- FindPeaks finds local maxima using the given constraints, returning the result as {{x1,y1},{x2,y2},…}.
- Input list can be of one of the following forms:
-
{y1,y2,…} a list of values TimeSeries[…] regularly sampled time series object EventSeries[…] regularly sampled event series object - FindPeaks[list] automatically chooses scale, sharpness and threshold parameters.
- To avoid the detection of noise-related peaks, the input is regularized by performing a Gaussian filtering using the standard deviation σ.
- The value of σ defaults to
, with n being the number of data points in list. Larger values for σ reduce the number of peaks.
- Peaks detected in the regularized data are traced back to the corresponding peaks in the original data.
- By default, peaks are not filtered based on their sharpness (
). The sharpness s is computed as the second derivative of the data with a Gaussian filter at scale σ. Specify a smaller scale using {s,σs}.
- By default, peaks of any height are returned. Use a threshold t to dismiss peaks with smaller values. To apply the threshold at a scale other than 0, use {t,σt}.
- FindPeaks[list,σ,s,t] is equivalent to FindPeaks[list,σ,{s,σ},{t,0}].
- The following options can be given:
-
InterpolationOrder Automatic spline interpolation order of up to order 3 Padding "Reflected" padding scheme to use - By default, InterpolationOrder1 is assumed for lists of data. For TimeSeries objects, the interpolation order is inherited.
- The interpolation order is used when computing peak positions. Peaks may be located in between and possibly above {x,y} samples interpolation orders.
- For interpolation orders 0 or 1, a plateau of two or more data samples is assigned a single peak at its center location.
- For possible settings for Padding, see the reference page for ArrayPad.
Examples
open allclose allBasic Examples (1)Summary of the most common use cases
Scope (12)Survey of the scope of standard use cases
Data (4)

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-5ssec3

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-sbse5k

Peaks of a TimeSeries object:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-k2t1vh

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-ucf5vj


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-v7ro4i

Peaks of an EventSeries object:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-byvcsb

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-dhklb2


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-s18vb5


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-ommma5

Peaks of a list of Quantity objects:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-38ay6t

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-tazt6e


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-5j8b31

Threshold for values greater than 30 meters:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-em0v7i


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-3tmfx1

Parameters (8)
By default, an automatic scale is used:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-6rvg58


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-mdl0re

Compute peaks at different scales:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-3zis6i


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-5wsnr8

When finding peaks at scale , only peaks that sustain a blur up to scale
are returned:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-za85pb

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-gv694d

Signal and its blurred version at scale :

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-vze3r5

By default, peaks are not filtered based on their sharpness, equivalent to :

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-bxgmq8

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-5vw16h

Specify minimum sharpness value :

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-5zscki

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-sms3rx

Sharpness, defined by the negative second derivative, should be greater than the specified s:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-vwqgk7

Specify a minimum height value :

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-b9d18m

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-o3spf9


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-1sumov

Apply the value threshold after smoothing the data using a scale :

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-nazxke

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-jjctoa


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-1j9ty2

Options (3)Common values & functionality for each option
InterpolationOrder (1)
By default, InterpolationOrder1 is used:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-tz4lp5

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-rdzr9v


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-8f90h9

Find peaks of the cubic interpolation:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-cfvc9j

Note that the number and position of peaks may vary depending on the interpolation order:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-ohyikf

Padding (2)
By default, Padding"Reflected" is used:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-rn44wv

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-cxhghc


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-t0j53r


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-nsz6d1


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-7f2z6p

Padding influences the occurrence and position of peaks at the boundary:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-fwe6xn
By default, "Reflected" padding causes a peak at position 1:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-t728lv

"Reversed" padding induces a peak at position 1/2:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-sahum6

"Fixed" padding results in no peak at the boundary:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-ly9xbo

Applications (6)Sample problems that can be solved with this function
Find peaks in the stock price of Apple in the year 2013:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-17gbj3


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-nksa1y


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-dw9h9g

Highlight peaks on the plot of the data:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-qogmij


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-0di62a

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-wn3y9v

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-vlvrbl

Mean daily temperatures for Chicago during a period of two months:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-r64lqt


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-h9eqq2

Find peaks in the temperature:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-izrizl

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-zk3no2


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-53gthj

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-2588qn


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-r4r45l

Detect the mode of a distribution using the peak of its histogram. Sample a Fréchet distribution:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-21h8fu

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-mtyb69

Find the mode of the distribution:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-890gxb


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-l40zil

Compare the mode with the theoretical value of the Fréchet distribution:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-rpvszh

Use peaks of an audio power spectrum to detect pitches of the sound:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-d361hm

Compute the power periodogram:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-dvtv51
Find peaks of the power spectrum:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-p5vasx


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-42v0yk

Converting peak locations into corresponding frequencies:

https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-b5afv4


https://wolfram.com/xid/05fgdikka8-sfav1l

Wolfram Research (2014), FindPeaks, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindPeaks.html (updated 2021).
Text
Wolfram Research (2014), FindPeaks, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindPeaks.html (updated 2021).
Wolfram Research (2014), FindPeaks, Wolfram Language function, https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindPeaks.html (updated 2021).
CMS
Wolfram Language. 2014. "FindPeaks." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2021. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindPeaks.html.
Wolfram Language. 2014. "FindPeaks." Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Wolfram Research. Last Modified 2021. https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindPeaks.html.
APA
Wolfram Language. (2014). FindPeaks. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindPeaks.html
Wolfram Language. (2014). FindPeaks. Wolfram Language & System Documentation Center. Retrieved from https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindPeaks.html
BibTeX
@misc{reference.wolfram_2025_findpeaks, author="Wolfram Research", title="{FindPeaks}", year="2021", howpublished="\url{https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindPeaks.html}", note=[Accessed: 09-June-2025
]}
BibLaTeX
@online{reference.wolfram_2025_findpeaks, organization={Wolfram Research}, title={FindPeaks}, year={2021}, url={https://reference.wolfram.com/language/ref/FindPeaks.html}, note=[Accessed: 09-June-2025
]}