cminkowski: Calculate the Minkowski distances for each pair of factors or...

In cmahalanobis: Calculate Distance Measures for DataFrames

Calculate the Minkowski distances for each pair of factors or for the index.

Description

This function takes a dataframe and a variable or variables (two or more) in input, and returns a matrix or matrices (two or more) with the Minkowski distances about the factors inside them. You can also select "index" to calculate the Minkowski distances between each row.

Usage

cminkowski(
  dataset,
  formula,
  p = 3,
  plot = TRUE,
  plot_title = "Minkowski Distance Between Groups",
  min_group_size = 3
)

Arguments

dataset	A dataframe.
formula	The index of the dataframe, otherwise a variable or variables (two or more) with factors which you want to calculate the Minkowski distances matrix or matrices (two or more).
p	Order of the Minkowski distance.
plot	Logical, if TRUE, a plot or plots (two or more) of the Minkowski distances matrix or matrices about factors (two or more) are displayed.
plot_title	If plot is TRUE, the title to be used for plot or plots about factors. The default value is TRUE.
min_group_size	Minimum group size to maintain. The default value is 3, therefore groups, inside variables, with less than 3 observations will be discarded. For "index", this value is always 1.

Value

According to the option chosen in formula, with "index" the Minkowski distances matrix will be printed; instead, by specifying variables, the Minkowski distances matrix or matrices (two or more) between each pair of groups and, optionally, the plot or plots (two or more) will be printed.

Note

When p < 1, the Minkowski distance is a "dissimilarity" measure. When p >= 1, the triangle inequality property is satisfied and we say "Minkowski distance". If "index" is selected with variables, only distances between rows are calculated. Therefore, this snippet: "cminkowski(mtcars, ~am + carb + index)" will print distances only considering "index". Rows with NA values are omitted.

Examples

# Example with iris dataset

data(iris)

cminkowski(iris, ~Species, p = 3, plot = TRUE, 
plot_title = "Minkowski Distance Between Groups")

# Example with mtcars dataset

data(mtcars)

cminkowski(mtcars, ~am, p = 3, plot = TRUE, 
plot_title = "Minkowski Distance Between Groups")

# Calculate the Minkowski distance for 32 car models in "mtcars" dataset
res <- cminkowski(mtcars, ~index, p = 2, plot = TRUE)

cmahalanobis documentation built on Sept. 14, 2025, 5:09 p.m.