R - median() Function

The R median() function is used to calculate the median of a given numeric vector. The syntax for using this function is given below:

Syntax

median(x, na.rm = FALSE)

Parameters

`x`	`Required.` Specify the numeric vector.
`na.rm`	`Optional.` Specify TRUE to remove NA or NaN values before the computation. Default is FALSE.

Return Value

Returns the median of x.

Example:

The example below shows the usage of median() function.

v <- c(10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35)
cat("The vector contains:\n")
print(v)
cat("median of the vector:", median(v), "\n")

m <- matrix(c(10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60), ncol=2)
cat("\nThe matrix contains:\n")
print(m)
cat("median of the matrix:", median(m))
cat("\nmedian along first column of the matrix:", median(m[,1]))

The output of the above code will be:

The vector contains:
[1] 10 15 20 25 30 35
median of the vector: 22.5 

The matrix contains:
     [,1] [,2]
[1,]   10   40
[2,]   20   50
[3,]   30   60
median of the matrix: 35
median along first column of the matrix: 20

Using na.rm parameter

The na.rm parameter can be set TRUE to remove NA or NaN values before the computation.

Example:

Consider the example below to see the usage of na.rm parameter.

v1 <- c(10, 20, NA)
v2 <- c(10, 20, NaN)

cat("median of v1:", median(v1), "\n")
cat("median after removing NA:", median(v1, na.rm=TRUE), "\n")

cat("\nmedian of v2:", median(v2), "\n")
cat("median after removing NaN:", median(v2, na.rm=TRUE), "\n")

The output of the above code will be:

median of v1: NA 
median after removing NA: 15 

median of v2: NA 
median after removing NaN: 15

❮ R Statistical Functions