--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 1996-2012 John W. Eaton
+##
+## This file is part of Octave.
+##
+## Octave is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+## under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at
+## your option) any later version.
+##
+## Octave is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+## WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
+## General Public License for more details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING. If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} skewness (@var{x})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} {} skewness (@var{x}, @var{dim})
+## Compute the skewness of the elements of the vector @var{x}.
+## @tex
+## $$
+## {\rm skewness} (x) = {1\over N \sigma^3} \sum_{i=1}^N (x_i-\bar{x})^3
+## $$
+## where $\bar{x}$ is the mean value of $x$.
+## @end tex
+## @ifnottex
+##
+## @example
+## skewness (x) = 1/N std(x)^(-3) sum ((x - mean(x)).^3)
+## @end example
+##
+## @end ifnottex
+##
+## @noindent
+## If @var{x} is a matrix, return the skewness along the
+## first non-singleton dimension of the matrix. If the optional
+## @var{dim} argument is given, operate along this dimension.
+## @seealso{var, kurtosis, moment}
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: KH <Kurt.Hornik@wu-wien.ac.at>
+## Created: 29 July 1994
+## Adapted-By: jwe
+
+function retval = skewness (x, dim)
+
+ if (nargin != 1 && nargin != 2)
+ print_usage ();
+ endif
+
+ if (! (isnumeric (x) || islogical (x)))
+ error ("skewness: X must be a numeric vector or matrix");
+ endif
+
+ nd = ndims (x);
+ sz = size (x);
+ if (nargin != 2)
+ ## Find the first non-singleton dimension.
+ (dim = find (sz > 1, 1)) || (dim = 1);
+ else
+ if (!(isscalar (dim) && dim == fix (dim))
+ || !(1 <= dim && dim <= nd))
+ error ("skewness: DIM must be an integer and a valid dimension");
+ endif
+ endif
+
+ n = sz(dim);
+ sz(dim) = 1;
+ x = center (x, dim); # center also promotes integer to double for next line
+ retval = zeros (sz, class (x));
+ s = std (x, [], dim);
+ idx = find (s > 0);
+ x = sum (x .^ 3, dim);
+ retval(idx) = x(idx) ./ (n * s(idx) .^ 3);
+
+endfunction
+
+
+%!assert(skewness ([-1,0,1]), 0);
+%!assert(skewness ([-2,0,1]) < 0);
+%!assert(skewness ([-1,0,2]) > 0);
+%!assert(skewness ([-3,0,1]) == -1*skewness([-1,0,3]));
+%!test
+%! x = [0; 0; 0; 1];
+%! y = [x, 2*x];
+%! assert(all (abs (skewness (y) - [0.75, 0.75]) < sqrt (eps)));
+
+%!assert (skewness (single(1)), single(0));
+
+%% Test input validation
+%!error skewness ()
+%!error skewness (1, 2, 3)
+%!error skewness (['A'; 'B'])
+%!error skewness (1, ones(2,2))
+%!error skewness (1, 1.5)
+%!error skewness (1, 0)
+%!error skewness (1, 3)