FLAG_IMPLICIT_SKIP_NAN sets and gets default mode for handling NaNs 1 skips NaN's (the default mode if no mode is set) 0 NaNs are propagated; input NaN's give NaN's at the output FLAG = flag_implicit_skip_nan gets current mode flag_implicit_skip_nan(FLAG) sets mode prevFLAG = flag_implicit_skip_nan(nextFLAG) gets previous set FLAG and sets FLAG for the future flag_implicit_skip_nan(prevFLAG) resets FLAG to previous mode It is used in: SUMSKIPNAN, MEDIAN, QUANTILES, TRIMEAN and affects many other functions like: CENTER, KURTOSIS, MAD, MEAN, MOMENT, RMS, SEM, SKEWNESS, STATISTIC, STD, VAR, ZSCORE etc. The mode is stored in the global variable FLAG_implicit_skip_nan It is recommended to use flag_implicit_skip_nan(1) as default and flag_implicit_skip_nan(0) should be used for exceptional cases only. This feature might disappear without further notice, so you should really not rely on it.