[R] interaction() -- problem with drop?

[Peter Dalgaard BSA]

Matthew Wiener <mcw at ln.nimh.nih.gov> writes:

> Hi, all. 
> 
> (R-1.3.0 on linux, alpha and intel; also tested on R-1.1.1 on irix.)
> 
> Below is a program that creates some random data (n, x, and y), creates a
> factor out of x and y and then creates a factor z out of their interaction
> (corresponding, with the default nf = 2, to quadrants, which is how I came
> upon this).  It then runs an analysis of variance.
> 
> f.test.problem <- 
> function(n = 100, nf = 2){
> 
>   t1 <- data.frame(n = rnorm(n), x = rnorm(n), y = rnorm(n))
> 
>   t1$x <- cut(t1$x, nf, labels = 1:nf)
>   t1$y <- cut(t1$y, nf, labels = 1:nf)
>   t1$z <- interaction(t1$x, t1$y, drop = F)
>   
>   print(table(t1$x))
>   print(table(t1$y))
>   print(table(t1$z))
>   
>   summary(aov(n ~ z, data = t1))
> }
> 
> Here's the problem:  if none of the nf * nf levels of z is empty -- that
> is, if there is at least one trial taking on each value -- I get the error
> "Error in model.matrix(t, data) : invalid variable type".
> 
> traceback() gives:
...
> Apologies in advance if I'm being dense and this is really how things
> ought to work.  If not, I'll submit a formal bug report.

You're not and please do...

This happens already with

a <- gl(2,5,10)
b <- gl(5,1,10)
zz <- interaction(a,b)
model.matrix.default(~zz)

wheras

zz <- a:b             
model.matrix.default(~zz)

works fine, and zz is *apparently* identical between the two, save for
the level names (which is another bug...).

And watch this:

> zz1 <- interaction(a,b)
> dput(zz1)
structure(c(1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10), .Label = c("1.1", 
"2.1", "1.2", "2.2", "1.3", "2.3", "1.4", "2.4", "1.5", "2.5"
), class = "factor")
> model.matrix.default(~zz1)
Error in model.matrix(t, data) : invalid variable type
> zz2 <- structure(c(1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10), .Label = c("1.1", 
+ "2.1", "1.2", "2.2", "1.3", "2.3", "1.4", "2.4", "1.5", "2.5"
+ ), class = "factor")
> all.equal(zz1,zz2)
[1] TRUE
> model.matrix.default(~zz2)
   (Intercept) zz22.1 zz21.2 zz22.2 zz21.3 zz22.3 zz21.4 zz22.4 zz21.5 zz22.5
1            1      0      0      0      0      0      0      0      0      0
2            1      0      1      0      0      0      0      0      0      0

<stuff like this usually happens if the internal bit that says that an
object has a class doesn't get turned on for some reason>

-- 
   O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907
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