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$median (aggregation)

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$median

New in version 7.0.

Returns an approximation of the median, the 50th percentile, as a scalar value.

You can use $median as an accumulator in the $group stage or as an aggegation expression.

The syntax for $median is:

{
$median: {
input: <number>,
method: <string>
}
}

$median takes the following fields:

Field
Type
Necessity
Description
input
Expression
Required
$median calculates the 50th percentile value of this data. input must be a field name or an expression that evaluates to a numeric type. If the expression cannot be converted to a numeric type, the $median calculation ignores it.
method
String
Required
The method that mongod uses to calculate the 50th percentile value. The method must be 'approximate'.

You can use $median in:

  • $group stages as an accumulator

  • $setWindowFields stages as an accumulator

  • $project stages as an aggregation expression

$median has the following characteristics as an accumulator, it:

  • Calculates a single result for all the documents in the stage.

  • Uses the t-digest algorithm to calculate approximate, percentile based metrics.

  • Uses approximate methods to scale to large volumes of data.

$median has the following characteristics as an aggregation expression, it:

  • Accepts an array as input

  • Calculates a separate result for each input document

In a $group stage, $median is an accumulator and calculates a value for all documents in the window.

In a $project stage, $median is an aggregation expression and calculates values for each document.

In $setWindowFields stages, $median returns a result for each document like an aggregation expression, but the results are computed over groups of documents like an accumulator.

In $group stages, $median always uses an approximate calculation method.

In $project stages, $median might use the discrete calculation method even when the approximate method is specified.

In $setWindowFields stages, the workload determines the calculation method that $median uses.

The computed percentiles $median returns might vary, even on the same datasets. This is because the algorithm calculates approximate values.

Duplicate samples can cause ambiguity. If there are a large number of duplicates, the percentile values may not represent the actual sample distribution. Consider a data set where all the samples are the same. All of the values in the data set fall at or below any percentile. A "50th percentile" value would actually represent either 0 or 100 percent of the samples.

If you use $median as an aggregation expression in a $project stage, you can use an array as input. $median ignores non-numeric array values.

The syntax is:

{
$median:
{
input: [ <expression1, <expression2>, ..., <expressionN> ],
method: <string>
}
}

A window function lets you calculate results over a moving "window" of neighboring documents. As each document passes though the pipeline, the $setWindowFields stage:

  • Recomputes the set of documents in the current window

  • calculates a value for all documents in the set

  • returns a single value for that document

You can use $median in a $setWindowFields stage to calculate rolling statistics for time series or other related data.

When you use $median in a $setWindowField stage, the input value must be a field name. If you enter an array instead of a field name, the operation fails.

The following examples use the testScores collection. Create the collection:

db.testScores.insertMany( [
{ studentId: "2345", test01: 62, test02: 81, test03: 80 },
{ studentId: "2356", test01: 60, test02: 83, test03: 79 },
{ studentId: "2358", test01: 67, test02: 82, test03: 78 },
{ studentId: "2367", test01: 64, test02: 72, test03: 77 },
{ studentId: "2369", test01: 60, test02: 53, test03: 72 }
] )

Create an accumulator that calculates the median value:

db.testScores.aggregate( [
{
$group: {
_id: null,
test01_median: {
$median: {
input: "$test01",
method: 'approximate'
}
}
}
}
] )

Output:

{ _id: null, test01_median: 62 }

The _id field value is null so $group selects all the documents in the collection.

The $median accumulator takes its input from the test01 field. $median calculates the median value for the field, 62 in this example.

In a $group stage, $median is an accumulator and calculates a single value for all documents. In a $project stage, $median is an aggregation expression and calculates values for each document.

You can use a field name or an array as input in a $project stage.

db.testScores.aggregate( [
{
$project: {
_id: 0,
studentId: 1,
testMedians: {
$median: {
input: [ "$test01", "$test02", "$test03" ],
method: 'approximate'
}
}
}
}
] )

Output:

{ studentId: '2345', testMedians: 80 },
{ studentId: '2356', testMedians: 79 },
{ studentId: '2358', testMedians: 78 },
{ studentId: '2367', testMedians: 72 },
{ studentId: '2369', testMedians: 60 }

When $median is an aggregation expression there is a result for each studentId.

To base your percentile values on local data trends, use $median in a $setWindowField aggregation pipeline stage.

This example creates a window to filter scores:

db.testScores.aggregate( [
{
$setWindowFields: {
sortBy: { test01: 1 },
output: {
test01_median: {
$median: {
input: "$test01",
method: 'approximate'
},
window: {
range: [ -3, 3 ]
}
}
}
}
},
{
$project: {
_id: 0,
studentId: 1,
test01_median: 1
}
}
] )

Output:

{ studentId: '2356', test01_median: 60 },
{ studentId: '2369', test01_median: 60 },
{ studentId: '2345', test01_median: 60 },
{ studentId: '2367', test01_median: 64 },
{ studentId: '2358', test01_median: 64 }

In this example, the median calculation for each document also incorporates data from the three documents before and after it.

The $percentile operator is a more general version of the $median operator that allows you to set one or more percentile values.

For more information on window functions, see: $setWindowFields.

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