Consider > summary(1:5) Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. 1 2 3 3 4 5 > summary(c(1:5,NA)) Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. NA's 1 2 3 3 4 5 1 Wouldn't it be more stringent if "NA's" was also reported in the first case?? Regards Søren