[R] svm and scaling input

[David Meyer]

Arne.Muller at sanofi-aventis.com wrote:
> Dear All,
> 
> I've a question about scaling the input variables for an analysis with
> svm (package e1071). Most of my variables are factors with 4 to 6
> levels but there are also some numeric variables.
> 
> I'm not familiar with the math behind svms, so my assumtions maybe
> completely wrong ... or obvious. Will the svm automatically expand the
> factors into a binary matrix? 

yes.

> If I add numeric variables outside the range of 0 to 1 do I have to
> scale them to have 0 to 1 range?

svm() will scale your data by default.

Cheers, 
David

-- 
Dr. David Meyer
Department of Information Systems and Operations

Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration
Augasse 2-6, A-1090 Wien, Austria, Europe
Fax: +43-1-313 36x746 
Tel: +43-1-313 36x4393
HP:  http://wi.wu-wien.ac.at/~meyer/