[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #43038] 'mean' fails when operating on trailing singleton dimension

[anonymous]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?43038>

                 Summary: 'mean' fails when operating on trailing singleton
dimension 
                 Project: GNU Octave
            Submitted by: None
            Submitted on: Thu 21 Aug 2014 02:41:34 UTC
                Category: Octave Function
                Severity: 3 - Normal
                Priority: 5 - Normal
              Item Group: Feature Request
                  Status: None
             Assigned to: None
         Originator Name: Pierre Bellec
        Originator Email: address@hidden
             Open/Closed: Open
         Discussion Lock: Any
                 Release: 3.8.1
        Operating System: GNU/Linux

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Details:

Dear Octave developers,

Thanks a million for the fantastic software. I just ran across the following
error:

>> a = rand(2,2,1);
>> mean(a,3);
error: mean: DIM must be an integer and a valid dimension
error: called from:
error:   /usr/share/octave/3.8.1/m/statistics/base/mean.m at line 107, column
7

What happens is that the trailing singleton dimension is removed, and the
variable 'a' has only two dimensions, so the error message is in essence
correct. 

However, this is causing trouble in the code I am currently working on: in my
code, in general the third dimension is not a singleton, and the code works
fine. But if the third dimension happens to be a singleton (in my case, it
codes for the number of parameters I am testing in a simulation), I get an
error. I would find it logical for mean(a,3) to return a, instead of an error.
Actually, this behaviour would make sense for mean(a,n), with n greater than
the number of dimensions of a. 

What do you think ? Am I missing a potential issue with the suggested
behaviour ?

Best,

Pierre





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