# \`maximum\`, \`minimum\`, etc, with array with missing values

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/maximum-minimum-etc-with-array-with-missing-values/56549>\
**Category:** Internals & Design\
**Created:** [March 5, 2021, 12:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/maximum-minimum-etc-with-array-with-missing-values/56549 "2021-03-05T12:24:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![lmiq](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/lmiq/32/18314_2.png) [@lmiq](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/lmiq)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 12:24pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/maximum-minimum-etc-with-array-with-missing-values/56549/1 "2021-03-05T12:24:15Z")

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Shouldn’t these functions return the maximum, minimum, etc, disregarding missing values?

```julia
julia> x = [missing, 1, 2]
3-element Array{Union{Missing, Int64},1}:
  missing
 1
 2

julia> maximum(x)
missing

julia> minimum(x)
missing

julia> using Statistics

julia> mean(x)
missing

julia> std(x)
missing

```

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![simeonschaub](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/simeonschaub/32/216566_2.png) [@simeonschaub](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/simeonschaub)\
**Post date:** [March 5, 2021, 12:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/maximum-minimum-etc-with-array-with-missing-values/56549/2 "2021-03-05T12:35:30Z")

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You should use `skipmissing` here. For `missing` values, it is assumed they could represent any value possible, so operations like the `maximum` propagate this uncertainty.