[R] strange behaviour of median

[(Ted Harding)]

Well, I get the same as Petr with  R version 2.10.0 (2009-10-26)
on Linux.

To me, this suggests that median is broken! Any user would,
a priori, expect that median() should operate in exactly
the same way as mean(). To extend Petr's example:

  mat <- matrix(1:32, 4,8)
  df1 <- data.frame(mat)
  mean(df1)
  #   X1   X2   X3   X4   X5   X6   X7   X8 
  #  2.5  6.5 10.5 14.5 18.5 22.5 26.5 30.5 
  median(df1)
  # [1] 14.5 18.5

so (as in Petr's original example, but more clearly) median()
returns the medians of the two "central" columns X4 and X5 of df1.

But that is with an even number of columns. Now look at what
happens with an odd number:

  mat <- matrix(1:28, 4,7)
  df1 <- data.frame(mat)
  mean(df1)
  #   X1   X2   X3   X4   X5   X6   X7 
  #  2.5  6.5 10.5 14.5 18.5 22.5 26.5 
  median(df1)
  #   structure(c("13", "14", "15", "16"), class = "AsIs")
  # 1                                                   13
  # 2                                                   14
  # 3                                                   15
  # 4                                                   16

Wow!!!!!!!!!!

This does suggest a tie-in with Petr's observation about "As.Is",
and there is no doubt at all that the above result is rubbish.
It is certainly not what a user would expect, and in the context
of Petr's intention to present R lessons to a class, I could
foresee students turning their backs on R if they came up with
such a result in their early encounters!

Ted.

On 04-Feb-10 08:59:59, Mario Valle wrote:
> Linux 2.9.0 gives:
> 
>> median(df1)
> [1] 34
> 
> Ever stranger...
>               mario
> 
> Petr PIKAL wrote:
>> During some experimentation in preparing R lessons I encountered this 
>> behaviour which I can not explain fully
>> 
>> mat <- matrix(1:16, 4,4)
>> df1 <- data.frame(mat)
>> 
>>> mean(df1)
>>   X1   X2   X3   X4 
>>  2.5  6.5 10.5 14.5 
>> 
>> Expected, documented
>> 
>>> median(df1)
>> [1]  6.5 10.5
>> 
>> Rather weird, AFAIK there shall not be an issue with data frame at
>> least I 
>> did not find any in help page. I tracked it down probably to an As.Is 
>> operation with object and subsequent sorting in median.default.
>> 
>> I know other (*apply) ways how to compute median for data frames so I
>> just 
>> would like to hear an opinion about this behaviour from more
>> experienced 
>> people.
>> 
>> Thank you
>> Best regards
>> 
>> Petr
>> 
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>> PLEASE do read the posting guide
>> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> 
> -- 
> Ing. Mario Valle
> Data Analysis and Visualization Group            |
> http://www.cscs.ch/~mvalle
> Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS)      | Tel:  +41 (91)
> 610.82.60
> v. Cantonale Galleria 2, 6928 Manno, Switzerland | Fax:  +41 (91)
> 610.82.82
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

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E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at manchester.ac.uk>
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Date: 04-Feb-10                                       Time: 09:28:13
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