#### Previous topic

scipy.cluster.hierarchy.centroid

#### Next topic

scipy.cluster.hierarchy.ward

# scipy.cluster.hierarchy.median

`scipy.cluster.hierarchy.``median`(y)

  Performs median/WPGMC linkage.

  See `linkage` for more information on the return structure and algorithm.

  > The following are common calling conventions:

  > 1. `Z = median(y)`

  >    Performs median/WPGMC linkage on the condensed distance matrix `y`. See `linkage` for more information on the return structure and algorithm.

  > 2. `Z = median(X)`

  >    Performs median/WPGMC linkage on the observation matrix `X` using Euclidean distance as the distance metric. See `linkage` for more information on the return structure and algorithm.

  Parameters: | y : ndarray A condensed distance matrix. A condensed distance matrix is a flat array containing the upper triangular of the distance matrix. This is the form that `pdist` returns. Alternatively, a collection of m observation vectors in n dimensions may be passed as a m by n array.
  Returns: | Z : ndarray The hierarchical clustering encoded as a linkage matrix.

  See also

  `linkage`
    for advanced creation of hierarchical clusterings.
  `scipy.spatial.distance.pdist`
    pairwise distance metrics