rank {base} | R Documentation |
Sample Ranks
Description
Returns the sample ranks of the values in a numeric vector. Ties, i.e., equal values, result in ranks being averaged, by default.
Usage
rank(x, na.last = TRUE, ties.method = c("average", "first", "random"))
Arguments
x |
a numeric vector. |
na.last |
for controlling the treatment of |
ties.method |
a character string specifying how ties are treated, see below; can be abbreviated. |
Details
If all components are different, the ranks are well defined, with
values in 1:n
where n <- length(x)
and we assume no
NA
s for the moment. Otherwise, with some values equal, called
‘ties’, the argument ties.method
determines
the result at the corresponding indices. The "first"
method
results in a permutation with increasing values at each index set of
ties. The "random"
method puts these in random order whereas the
default, "average"
, replaces them by their mean.
References
Becker, R. A., Chambers, J. M. and Wilks, A. R. (1988) The New S Language. Wadsworth \& Brooks/Cole.
See Also
order
and sort
.
Examples
(r1 <- rank(x1 <- c(3, 1, 4, 15, 92)))
x2 <- c(3, 1, 4, 1, 5, 9, 2, 6, 5, 3, 5)
names(x2) <- letters[1:11]
(r2 <- rank(x2)) # ties are averaged
## rank() is "idempotent": rank(rank(x)) == rank(x) :
stopifnot(rank(r1) == r1, rank(r2) == r2)
## ranks without averaging
rank(x2, ties.method= "first") # first occurrence wins
rank(x2, ties.method= "random") # ties broken at random
rank(x2, ties.method= "random") # and again