Simple statistics and what they hide

Mean, median, standard deviation and correlation, plus the traps in each one.

12 min read · Lesson 5 of 6 · Pro

Everything at once

Python 3

import pandas as pd

marks = pd.Series([78, 92, 55, 88, 41, 67, 73, 81, 60, 95])

print(marks.describe())
print("median:", marks.median())
print("mode  :", marks.mode().tolist())
print("range :", marks.max() - marks.min())

describe() gives count, mean, standard deviation, minimum, the three quartiles and the maximum. That is usually the right first command on any numeric column.

Mean and median disagree, and that is information

Python 3

import pandas as pd

salaries = pd.Series([3, 3.5, 4, 4, 4.5, 5, 5, 6, 6.5, 90])   # lakhs

print("mean  :", salaries.mean())     # 13.15
print("median:", salaries.median())   # 4.75

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