R help - Apr 2008 - prettyR 25% quartile, 75% quartile

I am using the describe function in prettyR.  I would like to add the
25% 75% quartiles to the summary table

how do I do this

I have tried

describe(x.f, num.desc=c("mean", "median", "sd",
"min", "max",
"skewness", "quantile(x.f, na.rm=T, probs=seq(0.25, 0.75))",
"valid.n"))

help

-- 
Let's not spend our time and resources thinking about things that are
so little or so large that all they really do for us is puff us up and
make us feel like gods. We are mammals, and have not exhausted the
annoying little problems of being mammals.

	-K. Mullis

stephen sefick wrote:
> I am using the describe function in prettyR.  I would like to add the
> 25% 75% quartiles to the summary table
> 
> how do I do this
> 
> I have tried
> 
> describe(x.f, num.desc=c("mean", "median",
"sd", "min", "max",
> "skewness", "quantile(x.f, na.rm=T, probs=seq(0.25,
0.75))",
> "valid.n"))
> 
Hi Stephen,
If you want to run your own summary function within "describe", you
have
to write a "wrapper" function that can be called by its name (unless I
radically rewrite "describe.numeric" so that a list of arguments can
be
included). Additionally, the function should return a single value 
(otherwise the "pretty" columnar display is messed up). So:

q25<-function(x,na.rm) {
  return(quantile(x,probs=0.25,na.rm=na.rm))
}
q75<-function(x,na.rm) {
  return(quantile(x,probs=0.75,na.rm=na.rm))
}
describe(x.f, num.desc=c("mean", "median", "sd",
"min", "max",
"skewness","q25","q75","valid.n"))

You have anticipated the help file of the latest version (1.3) that 
shows how to write a little wrapper for describe.numeric. Very good.

Jim