MATLAB: How to calcuate mean with NaN

mean with nanStatistics and Machine Learning Toolbox

Dear Friend,
There are two matrixs with the same size, there are some NaNs in each matrix. I want to calculate the mean of corresponding datapoints, which might contain NaN. for example, A(1,2)=NaN, B(1,2)=3, I need the average of the sum of 3+NaN divided by the effective number of data points, here is 1 since A(1,2) is NaN, to be 3. If A(2,2)=2,B(2,2)=5, I need the average to be (2+5)divided by 2, which equals 3.5 since neither A(2,2) and B(2,2) contains NaN. Is there a way to achieve this goal without using a for loop? thanks

Best Answer

If you have the Statistics Toolbox, just replace calls to mean() with calls to nanmean().
If you don't have it, you can do the same by downloading the File Exchange contribution nansuite
Here's an example:
A = reshape(1:4,2,2);
B = A + 10;
A([1 3]) = nan % Set some NaNs
B([1 2]) = nan
yourMean = nanmean(cat(3,A,B),3)
Which results in:
A =
     NaN   NaN
       2     4
B =
     NaN    13
     NaN    14
yourMean =
     NaN    13
       2     9
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