# Defining Probability Distribution with parameters

I have a family of probability distributions, indexed by elements in $\mathcal I =\mathbb N \times [0,1] \times [0,1]$. For each $(A,B,C) \in \mathcal I$ I know how to define the corresponding distribution $\mathcal D_{A,B,C}$.

dist :=
ProbabilityDistribution[
PDF[BinomialDistribution[A, y*B + (1 - y)*0.5], x]
PDF[BernoulliDistribution[C], y],
{x, 0, A, 1},
{y, 0, A, 1}];


What I want is to define a probability distribution with parameters, so that fixing parameters n,p,q will yield $\mathcal D_{A,B,C}$.

I have tried the obvious, e.g.

dist[n_,p_,q_] :=
ProbabilityDistribution[
PDF[BinomialDistribution[n, y*p + (1 - y)*0.5], x]
PDF[BernoulliDistribution[q], y],
{x, 0, n, 1},
{y, 0, n, 1}];


But I get an error message of the form SetDelayed::write: Tag ProbabilityDistribution in...is Protected.

I'm thinking there's some simple solution I don't know about (I'm new to Mathematica). I have also tried this (I don't know whether it amounts to the same thing):

dist[n_, p_, q_] :=
ProbabilityDistribution[
PDF[BinomialDistribution[i, y*j + (1 - y)*0.5], x]
PDF[BernoulliDistribution[k], y],
{x, 0, i, 1},
{y, 0, i, 1}] /. {i -> n, j -> p, k -> q};

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• The lines you say have SetDelayed::write message, they run fine for me on MMA 10.2… Aug 15 '15 at 15:11
• Mathematica will evaluate dist before dist[...], so the SetDelayed error is because your dist[n_,p_,q_] := ... statement is becoming ProbabilityDistribution[...][n_,p_,q_] := ... when evaluated. Does it work if you ClearAll[dist] first? Aug 15 '15 at 15:12
• Have you looked at ProductDistribution[]? Aug 15 '15 at 15:14
• @mfvonh, you are correct. Rookie mistake, I suppose!
– apc
Aug 15 '15 at 15:22

I just needed to do ClearAll[dist] first, as mfvonh pointed out in the comments.
• Do you mean ClearAll[dist] (capitalization)? Aug 15 '15 at 18:51