[R] Applying a function to a subset

[gaiarrido]

Here´s my problem,
i have developed the function kurtosis (using R-book as a guide) with this
commands:
kurtosis<-function(x) {
m4<-sum((x-mean(x))^4)/length(x)
s4<-var(x)^2
m4/s4 - 3 }

Then create the object fem, which is the difference between the count of a
trait in the left side of the body minus the right side. It´s a numeric
variable. But i´ve got no data for some individuals, so in the variable
"fem" i got numbers and smoe "NA".
When i try to apply kurtosis to "fem", the NA, don´t allow me to do that,
that`s what i get:

> kurtosis(fem)
[1] NA

I tried with simple tricks, but i´ve got no results:
> kurtosis(fem,na.rm=T)
Error en kurtosis(fem, na.rm = T) : 
  el argumento(s) no fue utilizado(s) (na.rm = T)

What can i do? the values of fem vary from -4 to 9.

Thanks very much
> kurtosis(fem[fem!="NA"])
[1] NA


-----
Mario Garrido Escudero
PhD student
Dpto. de Biología Animal, Ecología, Parasitología, Edafología y Qca. Agrícola
Universidad de Salamanca
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