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Re: Finding the median

From: Paul Q <paulq_at_home.com>
Date: Sat, 02 Dec 2000 02:37:24 GMT
Message-ID: <EfZV5.36957$3u1.9031597@news3.rdc1.on.home.com>

No, May not even be that close.
The median is defined as that which is "situated in the middle", and it is calculated quite differently from the mean. For example, the six friends in our example go shopping, and they spend the following amounts of money: $15.00, $24.50, $3.75, $43.99, $28.10, and $17.68. First, the values in question are all arranged in numerical order. In this case the order is: $3.75, $15.00, $17.68, $24.50, $28.10, $43.99. If there were an odd number of values, the middle value would be considered the median. Since there are an even number in this example, the median is the mean of the two middle values. Those values are 17.68 and 24.50, and the mean of those two is 21.09. Therefore, the median amount is $21.09. The median is most often used when there are values which are very high or very low.

"Jonathan Lewis" <jonathan_at_jlcomp.demon.co.uk> wrote in message news:975707338.5062.0.nnrp-01.9e984b29_at_news.demon.co.uk...
>
> There is no built-in.
> But if you have 8.1.6 you might be able to
> use the Analytic functions to good effect.
> e.g. Would the highest value in the 50th
> percentile be a reasonable approximation ?
>
>
> --
> Jonathan Lewis
> Yet another Oracle-related web site: http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk
>
> Practical Oracle 8i: Building Efficient Databases
>
> Publishers: Addison-Wesley
> Book bound date: 8th Dec 2000
> See a first review at:
> http://www.ixora.com.au/resources/index.htm#practical_8i
> More reviews at: http://www.jlcomp.demon.co.uk/book_rev.html
>
>
>
> sw_at_weinerfamily.org wrote in message

 <3A27F23C.3A111F35_at_weinerfamily.org>...
> >Given a column of numbers, how do I calculate the median? I don't see a
> >function to do it. Do I need to write a procedure?
> >
>
>
>
>
Received on Fri Dec 01 2000 - 20:37:24 CST

Original text of this message

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