median (Statistics Toolbox)

Median value of vectors and matrices.

Syntax

m = median(X)

Description

median(X) calculates the median value, which is the 50th percentile of a sample. The median is a robust estimate of the center of a sample of data, since outliers have little effect on it.

For vectors, median(x) is the median value of the elements in vector x. For matrices, median(X) is a row vector containing the median value of each column. Since median is implemented using sort, it can be costly for large matrices.

Examples

xodd = 1:5;
modd = median(xodd)

modd =

     3

meven = median(xeven)

meven =

    2.5000

This example shows robustness of the median to outliers.

xoutlier = [x 10000];
moutlier = median(xoutlier)

moutlier = 

     3