# Creating array and then average
**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/creating-array-and-then-average/45817
**Category:** General
**Created:** [18 May 2021 07:51 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/creating-array-and-then-average/45817 "2021-05-18T07:51:25Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@uno386](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/uno386)
#### Post date: [18 May 2021 07:51 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/creating-array-and-then-average/45817/1 "2021-05-18T07:51:25Z")
Hi everyone,
I am getting msg payload 4 times per day. So i want to store msg value in array of 4 elements.
Then, I want to calculate average of these 4 Elementes. But I am stuck in between counter(to count which number of payload) and msg payload value.
How to do better way?
Thank you
kind regards,
Gautam
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### Author:  [@E1cid](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/E1cid)
#### Post date: [18 May 2021 08:00 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/creating-array-and-then-average/45817/2 "2021-05-18T08:00:25Z")
Hi and welcome.
Not sure of better way, but you could hold the last 4 values in context and at certain time of day read context and average.
e.g.
```auto
[{"id":"262a06c7.d1a87a","type":"inject","z":"c74669a0.6a34f8","name":"at set time","props":[{"p":"payload"},{"p":"topic","vt":"str"}],"repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","payload":"","payloadType":"date","x":150,"y":880,"wires":[["65f10022.76a3c8"]]},{"id":"65f10022.76a3c8","type":"change","z":"c74669a0.6a34f8","name":"","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"payload","pt":"msg","to":"$average($flowContext(\"hold\"))","tot":"jsonata"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":360,"y":880,"wires":[["7e06057b.d1b80c"]]},{"id":"7e06057b.d1b80c","type":"debug","z":"c74669a0.6a34f8","name":"","active":true,"tosidebar":true,"console":false,"tostatus":false,"complete":"false","statusVal":"","statusType":"auto","x":570,"y":840,"wires":[]},{"id":"7f3522a3.fa06ac","type":"inject","z":"c74669a0.6a34f8","name":"incoming readins","props":[{"p":"payload"},{"p":"topic","vt":"str"}],"repeat":"","crontab":"","once":false,"onceDelay":0.1,"topic":"","payload":"$ceil($random()*5)","payloadType":"jsonata","x":180,"y":800,"wires":[["c99a39e2.503808"]]},{"id":"c99a39e2.503808","type":"change","z":"c74669a0.6a34f8","name":"","rules":[{"t":"set","p":"hold","pt":"flow","to":"$append([payload],$flowContext(\"hold\"))[[0..3]]","tot":"jsonata"}],"action":"","property":"","from":"","to":"","reg":false,"x":290,"y":800,"wires":[[]]}]
```
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [17 July 2021 08:01 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/creating-array-and-then-average/45817/3 "2021-07-17T08:01:14Z")
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