[Rd] matching predictors and dummies

Charles C. Berry cberry at tajo.ucsd.edu
Fri Jul 11 18:26:33 CEST 2008


On Fri, 11 Jul 2008, Jeroen Ooms wrote:

>
> I am trying to make a little web interface for the lm() function. It
> calculates both anova F-tests and parameters and returns it in a nice table.
> However, I have a problem with matching the Anova predictors with the
> regression coefficients: For numeric predictors there is no problem: the
> coefficients have the same names as the predictors. However, when a factor
> IV is specified, lm() automatically converts this factor to dummy variables,
> which (of course) have different names than the orriginal predictor. The lm
> model that is returned contains a seperate parameter for every dummy
> variable.
>
> Then when you use anova(lm.model) the function seems to know which of the
> parameters are dummies of one and the same factor, and takes these together
> in the anova-test. The anova() function returns the variance explained by
> the orriginal factor, which are all dummies. It does not show the seperate
> dummy variables anymore. Of course, this is exactly what you want in an
> analysis of variance.
>
> My question is: where in the lm or glm object is stored which of the
> parameters are dummies of the same factor? The only thing i could think of
> was using lm.model$xlevels, however manipulating these names in the lm-model
> did not confuse anova() at all, so I guess there is a better way.

See
 	?terms
 	?terms.object

and run

 	example( terms.object )

or something like

 	terms( lm( Ozone ~ Temp + factor(Month), airquality ) )

>
> An additional question is if it is possible to specify the names of the
> dummy variables that lm/glm creates when a factor is specified as IV?
> --

I'm guessing a custom contrast function would do this. Have a look at

 	?contrasts
 	page( contr.treatment, 'print' )

Or just hack the names attribute of the relevant pieces in the object 
returned by lm/glm.

You do know to use str(), right?


HTH,

Chuck


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Charles C. Berry                            (858) 534-2098
                                             Dept of Family/Preventive Medicine
E mailto:cberry at tajo.ucsd.edu	            UC San Diego
http://famprevmed.ucsd.edu/faculty/cberry/  La Jolla, San Diego 92093-0901



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