1. Descriptive Statistics: Practical 1
Measures of Spread
Measures of Spread
The most frequently used measure for the spread is the standard deviation (or it's square: the variance). In R the commands to calculate these statistics are sd() and var(). You can use these functions the same way as the functions for central tendency.
Use the gapminder data:
What is the variance of the variable 'lifeExp' for 1957?
What is the variance of the variable 'lifeExp' for 1957?
The variance of the variable 'lifeExp' for 1957
First, create a subset with only data of 1957:
Alternatively, you can do this also in one line by selecting all the rows in which the year is 1957 and selecting the column 'lifeExp'. Apply
First, create a subset with only data of 1957:
G1957 <- G[G$year == 1957,]Then apply the function for variance on the variable lifeExp.
var(G1957$lifeExp)
Alternatively, you can do this also in one line by selecting all the rows in which the year is 1957 and selecting the column 'lifeExp'. Apply
var() to this selection. var(G[G$year == 1957, 'lifeExp'])
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