Calculate median of a vector in R
In this tutorial, we shall learn to calculate median of a vector in R
Median of a vector
Median of a vector is the central tendency of elements in the vector. Median is calculated by arranging items of a vector in ascending and descending order, and the item that is in the middle of the sorted vector is our median. A built-in function called median() is used to calculate median of a vector in R programming language.
Syntax of median() in R
The syntax of median() function is
median(x, na.rm = FALSE, ...)
where
- x could be numeric vector.
- na.rm mean NA ReMoval. It could be TRUE or FALSE. If TRUE, NA values in vector would be stripped out before median computation proceeds.
Examples to Calculate median of a vector in R
We shall learn to calculate median with different options available with median() function.
Example 1 – median() of Numeric Vector
In this example, we will take a numeric vector and find its median using median() function.
example.R – R Program
x = c(1,4,7,9,6) xm = median(x) c(xm)
Output
[1] 6
Explanation
xm = median(1,4,7,9,6) = center_element(1,4,6,7,9) = 6
Example 2 – median() of Numeric Vector with na.rm=TRUE
In this example, we will take a numeric vector and find its median using median() function.
example.R – R Program
x = c(1,4,7,NA,9,6) xm = median(x,na.rm=TRUE) c(xm)
Output
[1] 6
na.rm = TRUE removes all the NA values present in vector before calculation proceeds.
Explanation
xm = median(1,4,7,NA,9,6) = center_element(1,4,6,7,9) = 6
Example 3 – median() of Numeric Vector with na.rm=FALSE
In this example, we will take a numeric vector and find its median using median() function.
example.R – R Program
x = c(1,4,7,NA,9,6) xm = median(x,na.rm=FALSE) c(xm)
Output
[1] NA
na.rm = FALSE does not remove NA values present in vector before calculation proceeds. And if NA is present in the vector, median would be NA irrespective of anything else.
Explanation
xm = median(1,4,7,NA,9,6) = NA
If NA s are expected in a vector, na.rm has to be considered.
Conclusion
In this R Tutorial, we have learnt about median() function and how to Calculate Median of a Vector in R with Example R Scripts.