algorithm used to calculate 5 star ratings

Question

I need to calculate 5-star ratings like the one on Amazon website. I have done enough search to find what is the best algorithm, but I am not able to get a proper answer. For ex

Answer 1

with C#

double rating = (double)(5 * star5 + 4 * star4 + 3 * star3 + 2 * star2 + 1 * star1) / (star1 + star2 + star3 + star4 + star5);
rating = Math.Round(rating, 1);

Answer 2

in Javascript

function calcAverageRating(ratings) {

  let totalWeight = 0;
  let totalReviews = 0;

  ratings.forEach((rating) => {

    const weightMultipliedByNumber = rating.weight * rating.count;
    totalWeight += weightMultipliedByNumber;
    totalReviews += rating.count;
  });

  const averageRating = totalWeight / totalReviews;

  return averageRating.toFixed(2);
}


const ratings = [
  {
    weight: 5,
    count: 252
  },
  {
    weight: 4,
    count: 124
  },
  {
    weight: 3,
    count: 40
  },
  {
    weight: 2,
    count: 29
  },
  {
    weight: 1,
    count: 33
  }
];

console.log(calcAverageRating(ratings));

Answer 3

That's a weighted average, where you weigh each rating with the number of votes it got:

(5*252 + 4*124 + 3*40 + 2*29 + 1*33) / (252+124+40+29+33) = 4.11 and change

Answer 4

This rating system is based on a weighted average or weighted mean. That is, they used the weight in terms of stars to compute a decimal value which rounds to 4.1. For example:

Sum of (weight * number of reviews at that weight) / total number of reviews
(5*252 + 4*124 + 3*40 + 2*29 + 1*33) / 478 = 4.1

Answer 5

There is a really great write up on this topic at evanmiller.org. He goes through and discusses the pros and cons of a few approaches and suggests a mathematically reliable way of weighting and calculating votes.

http://evanmiller.org/ranking-items-with-star-ratings.html

Answer 6

a better way to do this,

rating = (sum_of_rating * 5)/sum_of_max_rating_of_user_count  

example:

total users rated: 6  
sum_of_max_rating_of_user_count: 6 x 5 = 30  
sum_of_rating: 25

rating = (25 * 5) / 30

Done!