Here is one way: 
    my $sum  = 0;
       $sum += $_ for @total;

    my $average = $sum / @total;

[download]

And here is another: 


    my $average = 0;
       $average = ($_ * $average + $total[$_]) / ($_ + 1) for 0 .. @to
+tal -1;

[download]

Or as a one-liner (for a space delimited file with the numbers in column 3): 

    perl -lane '$a = (($. -1) * $a + $F[2])/$.; END{print $a}' file

[download]

Or if the numbers are in the first column of the file: 


    perl -lpe '$,+=$_}{$_=$,/$.' file

[download]

--
John.

In reply to Re: How to compute the avg of a column of numbers by jmcnamara
in thread How to compute the avg of a column of numbers by cosmicsoup

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.