Error while computing mean of a row vector

I am getting the following error while finding out the mean of a row vector(using the mean function of matlab) containing ten elements:

Subscript indices must either be real positive integers or logicals.

Could any one tell me how to resolve this error?

Thank you!

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

In the Command Window, type:

which mean -all

If it returns:

mean is a variable.

among its path returns, you are ‘shadowing’ (or ‘overshadowing’) the mean function with a variable you named ‘mean’. The solution is to rename the variable to ‘meanx’ or some such.

[rihab]

Well I haven't named the variable 'mean'; for example

xy = mean(abc) %abc is a row vector; abc=15.4206*ones(1,10)

and the error is:

Subscript indices must either be real positive integers or logicals.

[Star Strider]

This works for me without error:

abc=15.4206*ones(1,10);
xy = mean(abc);

I still suspect somewhere in your code, either mean or ones (if that is actually your code) are being shadowed. I would imagine you could get a ‘index exceeds matrix dimension’ error with positive integer arguments, but since they aren’t integers, you’re getting the error you see.

[Stephen23]

@anuribs: please tell us exactly the output when you run this command:

which mean -all

[rihab]

I am getting the same error: Subscript indices must either be real positive integers or logicals.

But now I am calculating it in the traditional way,i.e taking the sum and dividing it by the total number of observations so no longer a problem for me!

[Star Strider]

I still believe you’re shadowing the mean function somewhere in your code.