[R] Ack! Odd correlation matrix problem

Chris Bergstresser chris at subtlety.com
Sat Apr 16 22:31:11 CEST 2005


Spencer Graves wrote:
> Does the following answer the question:
>  > cor(B, use="complete.obs")
** snip **
>  > cor(B, use="pairwise.complete.obs")

    Yep.  That's exactly the issue.  I had thought the reference to 
casewise deletion in the help for "complete.obs" was referring solely to 
the two variables involved, not the entire dataset.
    The documentation might be a little clearer on this point for those 
just starting out in statistics, although I suppose it's only an issue 
if you're working with correlation matrices, which might imply you're 
really *not* just starting out in statistics, and should know better.

-- Chris




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