[R] what does this mean in R-1.8.1 release notes?

Peter Dalgaard p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk
Fri Nov 21 14:46:49 CET 2003


John Christie <jc at or.psychology.dal.ca> writes:

> what does this mean in R-1.8.1 release notes?
> 
>      o	median() no longer `works' for odd-length factor variables.

The median has always been undefined for factors, but nevertheless
median() gave an answer. If the length was even, it would fail since
it needed to average non-numeric values. This confused some and the
answer you got for in the odd-length case was meaningless anyway
(what's the median of three pears, four apples, and two bananas?). So
now we check.

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907




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