Geometric Mean: is there a built-in?

Question

I tried to find a built-in for geometric mean but couldn\'t.

(Obviously a built-in isn\'t going to save me any time while working in the shell, nor do I suspect ther

Answer 1

The

exp(mean(log(x)))

will work unless there is a 0 in x. If so, the log will produce -Inf (-Infinite) which always results in a geometric mean of 0.

One solution is to remove the -Inf value before calculating the mean:

geo_mean <- function(data) {
    log_data <- log(data)
    gm <- exp(mean(log_data[is.finite(log_data)]))
    return(gm)
}

You can use a one-liner to do this but it means calculating the log twice which is inefficient.

exp(mean(log(i[is.finite(log(i))])))

Answer 2

We can use psych package and call geometric.mean function.

Answer 3

No, but there are a few people who have written one, such as here.

Another possibility is to use this:

exp(mean(log(x)))