I am not sure why you say that "lapply(ml, mean)" shows (incorrectly) that the second year has a larger average; it is correct for the data:
> lapply(ml, my.func) $y1 Count Mean SD Min Median 90% 95% Max Sum 18.00000 16.83333 12.42980 4.00000 12.50000 37.20000 41.05000 47.00000 303.00000 $y2 Count Mean SD Min Median 90% 95% Max Sum 15.00000 20.06667 25.27694 4.00000 11.00000 45.80000 70.40000 97.00000 301.00000 You have a larger "outlier" in the second year that causes the mean to be higher. The median is lower, but I usually look at the 90th percentile if I am looking at response time from a system and again the second year has a higher value. So exactly why do you not "trust" your data? On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 7:49 AM, Petr PIKAL <petr.pi...@precheza.cz> wrote: > Hallo all > > I try to find a way how to compare set of waiting times during different > periods. I tried learn something from queueing theory and used also R > search. There is plenty of ways but I need to find the easiest and quite > simple. > Here is a list with actual waiting times. > > ml <- structure(list(y1 = c(10, 9, 9, 10, 8, 20, 16, 47, 4, 7, 15, > 18, 36, 5, 24, 15, 40, 10), y2 = c(97, 10, 26, 11, 11, 10, 5, > 13, 19, 5, 5, 59, 4, 16, 10)), .Names = c("y1", "y2")) > > par(mfrow=c(1,2)) > lapply(ml, hist) > > shows that in the first year is more longer waiting times > > lapply(ml, mean) > > shows (incorrectly) that in the second year there is longer average > waiting time. > > lapply(ml, mean) > > gives me completely reversed values. > > Can you please give me some hints what to use for "correct" and "simple" > comparison of waiting times in two or more periods. > > Thank you > Petr > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > -- Jim Holtman Data Munger Guru What is the problem that you are trying to solve? ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.