Fastest way to fit a parabola to set of points?

Question

Given a set of points, what\'s the fastest way to fit a parabola to them? Is it doing the least squares calculation or is there an iterative way?

Thanks

Edit

Answer 1

A calculated solution is almost always faster than an iterative solution. The "exception" would be for low iteration counts and complex calculations.

I would use the least squares method. I've only every coded it for linear regression fits but it can be used for parabolas (I had reason to look it up recently - sources included an old edition of "Numerical Recipes" Press et al; and "Engineering Mathematics" Kreyzig).