The R Project SVN R-packages

\name{mona}
\alias{mona}
\title{MONothetic Analysis Clustering of Binary Variables}

\description{
  Returns a list representing a divisive hierarchical clustering of
  a dataset with binary variables only.
}
\usage{
mona(x, trace.lev = 0)% FIXME: allow early stopping
}
\arguments{
  \item{x}{
    data matrix or data frame in which each row corresponds to an
    observation, and each column corresponds to a variable.  All
    variables must be binary.  A limited number of missing values (\code{NA}s)
    is allowed.  Every observation must have at least one value different
    from \code{\link{NA}}.  No variable should have half of its values
    missing.  There must be at least one variable which has no missing
    values.  A variable with all its non-missing values identical is
    not allowed.}
  \item{trace.lev}{logical or integer indicating if (and how much) the
    algorithm should produce progress output.}
}
\value{
  an object of class \code{"mona"} representing the clustering.
  See \code{\link{mona.object}} for details.
}
\details{
\code{mona} is fully described in chapter 7 of Kaufman and Rousseeuw (1990).
It is \dQuote{monothetic} in the sense that each division is based on a
single (well-chosen) variable, whereas most other hierarchical methods
(including \code{agnes} and \code{diana}) are \dQuote{polythetic}, i.e. they use
all variables together.

The \code{mona}-algorithm constructs a hierarchy of clusterings,
starting with one large cluster.  Clusters are divided until all
observations in the same cluster have identical values for all variables.
\cr
At each stage, all clusters are divided according to the values of one
variable. A cluster is divided into one cluster with all observations having
value 1 for that variable, and another cluster with all observations having
value 0 for that variable.

The variable used for splitting a cluster is the variable with the maximal
total association to the other variables, according to the observations in the
cluster to be splitted. The association between variables f and g
is given by a(f,g)*d(f,g) - b(f,g)*c(f,g), where a(f,g), b(f,g), c(f,g),
and d(f,g) are the numbers in the contingency table of f and g.
[That is, a(f,g) (resp. d(f,g)) is the number of observations for which f and g
both have value 0 (resp. value 1); b(f,g) (resp. c(f,g)) is the number of
observations for which f has value 0 (resp. 1) and g has value 1 (resp. 0).]
The total association of a variable f is the sum of its associations to all
variables.
}
\section{Missing Values (\code{\link{NA}}s)}{
  The mona-algorithm requires \dQuote{pure} 0-1 values.  However,
  \code{mona(x)} allows \code{x} to contain (not too many)
  \code{\link{NA}}s.  In a preliminary step, these are \dQuote{imputed},
  i.e., all missing values are filled in.  To do this, the same measure
  of association between variables is used as in the algorithm.  When variable
  f has missing values, the variable g with the largest absolute association
  to f is looked up. When the association between f and g is positive,
  any missing value of f is replaced by the value of g for the same
  observation. If the association between f and g is negative, then any missing
  value of f is replaced by the value of 1-g for the same
  observation.
}
\note{
  In \pkg{cluster} versions before 2.0.6, the algorithm entered an
  infinite loop in the boundary case of one variable, i.e.,
  \code{ncol(x) == 1}, which currently signals an error (because the
  algorithm now in C, haes not correctly taken account of this special case).
  %% FIXME ("patches are welcome")
}
\seealso{
  \code{\link{agnes}} for background and references;
  \code{\link{mona.object}}, \code{\link{plot.mona}}.
}
\examples{
data(animals)
ma <- mona(animals)
ma
## Plot similar to Figure 10 in Struyf et al (1996)
plot(ma)

## One place to see if/how error messages are *translated* (to 'de' / 'pl'):
ani.NA   <- animals; ani.NA[4,] <- NA
aniNA    <- within(animals, { end[2:9] <- NA })
aniN2    <- animals; aniN2[cbind(1:6, c(3, 1, 4:6, 2))] <- NA
ani.non2 <- within(animals, end[7] <- 3 )
ani.idNA <- within(animals, end[!is.na(end)] <- 1 )
try( mona(ani.NA)   ) ## error: .. object with all values missing
try( mona(aniNA)    ) ## error: .. more than half missing values
try( mona(aniN2)    ) ## error: all have at least one missing
try( mona(ani.non2) ) ## error: all must be binary
try( mona(ani.idNA) ) ## error:  ditto
}
\keyword{cluster}