7/7/2023 0 Comments R studio summary![]() To make matters worse, this isn’t just confusion generated during presentation- the actual values are wrong. Now this is a deliberately trivial example where we can see what is going on (it sure looks like presentation rounding). Summary() is claiming the minimum value from the set of numbers c(15555) is 15560. Let’s tack into the wind and demonstrate the failure: ![]() Because if the do, they have a very good chance of seeing summary() fail. But the whole time you are hoping none of your students call summary() on a single number. Here is an example below:įrom the names attached to the results you can get the meanings and move on. The primary way to do this in R is to call the summary() method. It would be useful to be able to produce and view some summaries or statistics about these numbers. Suppose you had a list or vector of numbers in R. Please keep this in mind when I demonstrate what goes wrong when one attempts to teach R’s summary() function to the laity. We find it is best to point out both what is great in R and what isn’t great (versus skipping such, or worse trying to justify such portions). Remember a new R student is still deciding if they want to use R, to them it is new so an instructor needs to defend R‘s current trade-offs (not its evolutionary path). Students are less sympathetic to implementation history and unstated conventions, as new users tend not to benefit from them. They want things that make sense (so they can learn them), that are powerful (so it is worth learning them), and that are regular (so they can compose them and move beyond what you are teaching). This is interesting because bright students really put a lot of interesting demands on how you organize and communicate. My group has been doing a lot more professional training lately. I really want to say “thank you” to Martin Maechler and the rest of the team for not only this, for all the things they do, and for putting up with me. Please read on for some context and my criticism.Įdit : Martin Maechler generously committed a fix! Assuming this works out in testing it looks like we could see an improvement on this core function in April 2017. summary() likely represents good work by high-ability researchers, and the sharp edges are due to historically necessary trade-offs. ![]() It is likely the way it is for historic and compatibility reasons, but in my opinion it does not currently represent a desirable set of tradeoffs. My criticism of R‘s numeric summary() method is: it is unfaithful to numeric arguments (due to bad default behavior) and frankly it should be considered unreliable. Data science advising, consulting, and training
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