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arraysmatlabmultidimensional-arraymedian

Median of an ENTIRE multi-dimensional array (not of just one dimension) in MATLAB

I have a 10 x 10 array of values, A. I need the median, M, of all of those values. I can find the medians along the rows or along the columns easily:

M = median(A,1) %or
M = median(A,2)

However, M = median(A) also returns the medians along the rows.

How can I find a single median of ALL the values? I know I could convert the array to one very very long vector, but that seems unpleasant and inefficient. Is there a simpler solution? I would like to be able to do this for multi-dimensional arrays as well.

Thanks!

Solution

  • First linearize by indexing with (:). This transforms any array into a column array. Then compute the median:

    M = median(A(:));

    I don't think that indexing with (:) needs any memory reallocation. It just reads the array in column-major order.