.nanmean()
Published May 14, 2025
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In NumPy, the .nanmean()
function computes the arithmetic mean of the elements in an array over a specified axis, while ignoring NaN
(Not a Number) values. This is useful when working with arrays that contain missing or undefined values represented as NaN
.
Syntax
numpy.nanmean(a, axis=None, dtype=None, out=None, keepdims=<no value>, *, where=<no value>)
Parameters:
a
: The data for which the mean is computed. It can be a NumPy array or any array-like object (e.g., list).axis
(Optional): Used to specify the axis along which the mean is calculated. IfNone
(default), the mean is computed over the flattened array.dtype
(Optional): The data type used for the calculation. If not specified, the result will have the same data type as the input (unlessa
is an integer, where the result will befloat64
by default).out
(Optional): A location where the result is stored. The array must have the same shape as the expected output. If not provided, a new array is created.keepdims
(Optional): If set toTrue
, the reduced axes are retained in the result with size one. This can be useful for broadcasting purposes.where
(Optional): A condition that allows the function to compute the mean only on elements where the condition isTrue
. It can be a boolean array or a condition (usuallyTrue
).
Return value:
The .nanmean()
function returns the mean of the array, ignoring NaN
values:
- If
axis
isNone
or if no axis is specified, it returns a single value representing the mean of the entire array. - If
axis
is specified, it returns an array of mean values along the specified axis of the dataa
.
Example 1: Basic Usage of .nanmean()
The example below shows how to calculate the mean value from an array:
import numpy as np# Creating a numpy array with NaN valuesarr = np.array([6, 13, 1, np.nan, 7])# Computing the mean of the array, ignoring NaNsresult = np.nanmean(arr)print(result)
The example code above results in the following output:
6.75
Example 2: Using .nanmean()
Along an Axis
This example shows how to use .nanmean()
function along a specific axis:
import numpy as np# Creating a 2D numpy array with NaN valuesarr = np.array([[8, np.nan, 3], [4, 2, 9]])# Computing the mean along axis 0 (columns)result = np.nanmean(arr, axis=0)print(result)
The example code above results in the following output:
[6. 2. 6.]
Codebyte Example: Using .nanmean()
with keepdims
In this codebyte example, the .nanmean()
method computes the mean of the elements in the array, demonstrating the use of keepdims
parameter:
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