[R] Mean error message missing

Achim Zeileis Achim.Zeileis at uibk.ac.at
Mon Jun 8 09:27:37 CEST 2015


On Mon, 8 Jun 2015, Christian Brandstätter wrote:

> Dear list,
>
> I found an odd behavior of the mean function; it is allowed to do something 
> that you probably shouldn't:
> If you calculate mean() of a sequence of numbers (without declaring them as 
> vector), mean() then just computes mean() of the first element. Is there a 
> reason why there is no warning, like in sd for example?

mean() - unlike sd() - is a generic function that has a '...' argument 
that is passed on to its methods. The default method which is called in 
your example also has a '...' argument (because the generic has it) but 
doesn't use it.

> Example code:
> mean(1,2,3,4)
> sd(1,2,3,4)
>
> Best regards
> Christian
>
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