你可以使用这个列表。排序以避免创建已排序的新列表，并对列表进行排序。

此外，你不应该使用list作为变量名，因为它会掩盖python自己的列表。

def median(l):
    half = len(l) // 2
    l.sort()
    if not len(l) % 2:
        return (l[half - 1] + l[half]) / 2.0
    return l[half]

如果需要更快的平均情况运行时间，可以尝试快速选择算法。Quickselect具有平均(和最佳)情况性能O(n)，尽管在糟糕的一天它可能会以O(n²)结束。

下面是一个随机选择枢轴的实现:

import random

def select_nth(n, items):
    pivot = random.choice(items)

    lesser = [item for item in items if item < pivot]
    if len(lesser) > n:
        return select_nth(n, lesser)
    n -= len(lesser)

    numequal = items.count(pivot)
    if numequal > n:
        return pivot
    n -= numequal

    greater = [item for item in items if item > pivot]
    return select_nth(n, greater)

你可以简单地把它变成一个方法来寻找中位数:

def median(items):
    if len(items) % 2:
        return select_nth(len(items)//2, items)

    else:
        left  = select_nth((len(items)-1) // 2, items)
        right = select_nth((len(items)+1) // 2, items)

        return (left + right) / 2

这是非常未优化的，但即使是一个优化的版本也不太可能超过Tim Sort (CPython的内置排序)，因为它真的很快。我以前试过，但失败了。

Python 3.4有statistics.median:

返回数值数据的中位数(中间值)。 当数据点数为奇数时，返回中间的数据点。 当数据点数为偶数时，通过取两个中间值的平均值来插值中位数: >>>中位数([1,3,5]) 3. >>>中位数([1,3,5,7]) 4.0

用法:

import statistics

items = [6, 1, 8, 2, 3]

statistics.median(items)
#>>> 3

它对类型也非常小心:

statistics.median(map(float, items))
#>>> 3.0

from decimal import Decimal
statistics.median(map(Decimal, items))
#>>> Decimal('3')

(适用于python-2.x):

def median(lst):
    n = len(lst)
    s = sorted(lst)
    return (s[n//2-1]/2.0+s[n//2]/2.0, s[n//2])[n % 2] if n else None

>>> median([-5, -5, -3, -4, 0, -1])
-3.5

numpy.median ():

>>> from numpy import median
>>> median([1, -4, -1, -1, 1, -3])
-1.0

python 3。X，使用statistics.median:

>>> from statistics import median
>>> median([5, 2, 3, 8, 9, -2])
4.0

我在“中位数的中位数”算法的Python实现中发布了我的解决方案，这比使用sort()稍微快一点。我的解决方案每列使用15个数字，速度~5N比每列使用5个数字的速度~10N快。最佳速度是~4N，但我可能是错的。

根据Tom在评论中的要求，我在这里添加了我的代码，以供参考。我认为速度的关键部分是每列使用15个数字，而不是5个。

#!/bin/pypy
#
# TH @stackoverflow, 2016-01-20, linear time "median of medians" algorithm
#
import sys, random


items_per_column = 15


def find_i_th_smallest( A, i ):
    t = len(A)
    if(t <= items_per_column):
        # if A is a small list with less than items_per_column items, then:
        #
        # 1. do sort on A
        # 2. find i-th smallest item of A
        #
        return sorted(A)[i]
    else:
        # 1. partition A into columns of k items each. k is odd, say 5.
        # 2. find the median of every column
        # 3. put all medians in a new list, say, B
        #
        B = [ find_i_th_smallest(k, (len(k) - 1)/2) for k in [A[j:(j + items_per_column)] for j in range(0,len(A),items_per_column)]]

        # 4. find M, the median of B
        #
        M = find_i_th_smallest(B, (len(B) - 1)/2)


        # 5. split A into 3 parts by M, { < M }, { == M }, and { > M }
        # 6. find which above set has A's i-th smallest, recursively.
        #
        P1 = [ j for j in A if j < M ]
        if(i < len(P1)):
            return find_i_th_smallest( P1, i)
        P3 = [ j for j in A if j > M ]
        L3 = len(P3)
        if(i < (t - L3)):
            return M
        return find_i_th_smallest( P3, i - (t - L3))


# How many numbers should be randomly generated for testing?
#
number_of_numbers = int(sys.argv[1])


# create a list of random positive integers
#
L = [ random.randint(0, number_of_numbers) for i in range(0, number_of_numbers) ]


# Show the original list
#
# print L


# This is for validation
#
# print sorted(L)[int((len(L) - 1)/2)]


# This is the result of the "median of medians" function.
# Its result should be the same as the above.
#
print find_i_th_smallest( L, (len(L) - 1) / 2)

更普遍的中位数(和百分位数)方法是:

def get_percentile(data, percentile):
    # Get the number of observations
    cnt=len(data)
    # Sort the list
    data=sorted(data)
    # Determine the split point
    i=(cnt-1)*percentile
    # Find the `floor` of the split point
    diff=i-int(i)
    # Return the weighted average of the value above and below the split point
    return data[int(i)]*(1-diff)+data[int(i)+1]*(diff)

# Data
data=[1,2,3,4,5]
# For the median
print(get_percentile(data=data, percentile=.50))
# > 3
print(get_percentile(data=data, percentile=.75))
# > 4

# Note the weighted average difference when an int is not returned by the percentile
print(get_percentile(data=data, percentile=.51))
# > 3.04