stepwise: Stepwise Model Selection

In RcmdrMisc: R Commander Miscellaneous Functions

Stepwise Model Selection

Description

Stepwise Model Selection

Usage

stepwise(
  mod,
  direction = c("backward/forward", "forward/backward", "backward", "forward"),
  criterion = c("BIC", "AIC"),
  ...
)

Arguments

mod	a model object of a class that can be handled by stepAIC.
direction	if "backward/forward" (the default), selection starts with the full model and eliminates predictors one at a time, at each step considering whether the criterion will be improved by adding back in a variable removed at a previous step; if "forward/backwards", selection starts with a model including only a constant, and adds predictors one at a time, at each step considering whether the criterion will be improved by removing a previously added variable; "backwards" and "forward" are similar without the reconsideration at each step.
criterion	for selection. Either "BIC" (the default) or "AIC". Note that stepAIC labels the criterion in the output as "AIC" regardless of which criterion is employed.
...	arguments to be passed to stepAIC.

Details

This function is a front end to the stepAIC function in the MASS package.

Value

The model selected by stepAIC.

Author(s)

John Fox

References

W. N. Venables and B. D. Ripley Modern Applied Statistics Statistics with S, Fourth Edition Springer, 2002.

See Also

stepAIC

Examples

## adapted from stepAIC in MASS
## Assigning bwt to the global environment is required to run this example within
## the browser-based help system. In other contexts, standard assignment can be used.
if (require(MASS)){
   data(birthwt)
   bwt <<- with(birthwt, {
      race <- factor(race, labels = c("white", "black", "other"))
      ptd <- factor(ptl > 0)
      ftv <- factor(ftv)
      levels(ftv)[-(1:2)] <- "2+"
      data.frame(low = factor(low), age, lwt, race, smoke = (smoke > 0), ptd,
                 ht = (ht > 0), ui = (ui > 0), ftv)
   })
   birthwt.glm <- glm(low ~ ., family = binomial, data = bwt)
   print(stepwise(birthwt.glm, trace = FALSE))
   print(stepwise(birthwt.glm, direction="forward/backward"))
}

## wrapper for stepAIC in the MASS package

RcmdrMisc documentation built on Jan. 8, 2026, 9:06 a.m.