[R] differing behavior of mean(), median() and sd() with na.rm

[Bert Gunter]

... And FWIW (not much, I agree), note that if z = numeric(0) and sum(z) =
0, then mean(z) = NaN makes sense, as length(z) = 0, so dividing by 0 gives
NaN. So you can see the sorts of issues you may need to consider.

Bert Gunter

"The trouble with having an open mind is that people keep coming along and
sticking things into it."
-- Opus (aka Berkeley Breathed in his "Bloom County" comic strip )


On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 7:47 AM Bert Gunter <bgunter.4567 using gmail.com> wrote:

> Actually, the dissonance is a bit more basic.
>
> After xxx(...., na.rm=TRUE) with all NA's in ... you have numeric(0). So
> what you see is actually:
>
> > z <- numeric(0)
> > mean(z)
> [1] NaN
> > median(z)
> [1] NA
> > sd(z)
> [1] NA
> > sum(z)
> [1] 0
> etc.
>
> I imagine that there may be more of these little inconsistencies due to
> the organic way R evolved over time. What the conventions should be  can be
> purely a matter of personal opinion in the absence of accepted standards.
> But I would look to see what accepted standards were, if any, first.
>
> -- Bert
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 22, 2018 at 7:34 AM Ivan Calandra <calandra using rgzm.de> wrote:
>
>> Dear useRs,
>>
>> I have just noticed that when input is only NA with na.rm=TRUE, mean()
>> results in NaN, whereas median() and sd() produce NA. Shouldn't it all
>> be the same? I think NA makes more sense than NaN in that case.
>>
>> x <- c(NA, NA, NA) mean(x, na.rm=TRUE) [1] NaN median(x, na.rm=TRUE) [1]
>> NAsd(x, na.rm=TRUE) [1] NA
>>
>> Thanks for any feedback.
>>
>> Best,
>> Ivan
>>
>> --
>> Dr. Ivan Calandra
>> TraCEr, laboratory for Traceology and Controlled Experiments
>> MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and
>> Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution
>> Schloss Monrepos
>> 56567 Neuwied, Germany
>> +49 (0) 2631 9772-243
>> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ivan_Calandra
>>
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>

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