Conditional Correlations

In nuggets: Fast and Extensible Pattern Discovery in Tabular Data

knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>"
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options(tibble.width = Inf)

Introduction

Conditional correlations identify conditions under which two numeric variables are strongly related. In nuggets, the basic scheme is:

xvar ~ yvar | condition

This reads as: the variables xvar and yvar are highly correlated in the sub-data satisfying the given condition.

For example:

study_time ~ test_score | hard_exam

This means that for difficult exams, the amount of study time is strongly related to the obtained test score.

The dig_correlations() function searches over generated conditions and computes correlations for all selected combinations of numeric variables. It supports the standard correlation methods implemented by stats::cor.test(), namely Pearson, Kendall, and Spearman correlations.

Before going further, load the packages used in this vignette:

library(nuggets)
library(dplyr)     # for data manipulation

For a broader overview of the package workflow, see vignette("nuggets").

A Small Working Dataset

dig_correlations() expects logical condition columns and numeric variables to correlate. The built-in iris dataset is convenient for this, because it already contains several numeric measurements and one factor column that can be transformed into condition predicates.

In the next example, we:

• convert Species into dummy logical predicates with partition(),
• add two logical helper conditions,
• add two derived numeric variables that will be useful in examples.

iris_corr <- iris |>
    mutate(long_sepal = Sepal.Length >= median(Sepal.Length),
           wide_petal = Petal.Width >= median(Petal.Width),
           sepal_ratio = Sepal.Length / Sepal.Width,
           petal_ratio = Petal.Length / Petal.Width) |>
    partition(Species)

head(iris_corr, n = 3)

The dummy columns created from Species and the logical helper columns can be used to generate conditions, while the original and derived numeric columns can be used in the correlation tests.

For more information on preparing data for pattern extraction, see vignette("data-preparation").

Basic Conditional Correlation Search

The simplest search chooses condition predicates and numeric variables, then limits the condition length and support:

corr_basic <- dig_correlations(iris_corr,
                               condition = where(is.logical),
                               xvars = c(Sepal.Length, Sepal.Width, sepal_ratio),
                               yvars = c(Petal.Length, Petal.Width, petal_ratio),
                               min_length = 0,
                               max_length = 2,
                               min_support = 0.2)

corr_basic |>
    arrange(desc(abs(estimate))) |>
    head(n = 6)

The result is a tibble where each row represents one discovered pattern. The main columns are:

• condition - the generated condition,
• support - relative frequency of the condition,
• xvar, yvar - the correlated variable pair,
• estimate - the correlation coefficient,
• p_value - significance of the test,
• n - number of rows in the corresponding sub-data,
• alternative, method - additional information about the test.

Controlling the Search Space

The condition, xvars, and yvars arguments accept tidyselect expressions. This makes it easy to restrict the search to specific groups of columns.

As with other dig_*() functions, the search can be controlled with min_length, max_length, min_support, max_support, and max_results.

For example, the following search uses only species predicates as conditions and correlates all sepal variables against all petal variables:

corr_species <- dig_correlations(iris_corr,
                                 condition = starts_with("Species"),
                                 xvars = starts_with("Sepal"),
                                 yvars = starts_with("Petal"),
                                 min_length = 1,
                                 max_length = 1,
                                 min_support = 0.3)

head(corr_species, n = 6)

Choosing the Correlation Method

The method argument selects which correlation coefficient is used:

• "pearson" for linear relationships,
• "spearman" for monotone relationships based on ranks,
• "kendall" for rank-based association with Kendall's tau.

Under the hood, every combination uses stats::cor.test() with the corresponding method argument. The estimate, statistic, p_value, and confidence-interval columns in the result map directly to the values returned by cor.test().

Here is the same basic search with Spearman correlation. As we are O.K. with non-exact p-values, we can set exact = FALSE (otherwise a warning is issued for small sub-data sizes):

corr_spearman <- dig_correlations(iris_corr,
                                  condition = where(is.logical),
                                  xvars = c(Sepal.Length, Sepal.Width),
                                  yvars = c(Petal.Length, Petal.Width),
                                  method = "spearman",
                                  exact = FALSE,
                                  min_length = 1,
                                  max_length = 1,
                                  min_support = 0.2)

head(corr_spearman, n = 6)

If you are interested specifically in positive or negative relationships, use the alternative argument with values "greater" or "less".

Correlations on the Whole Dataset

If condition = NULL, dig_correlations() computes correlations on the whole dataset only. This is useful when you want the same output structure without searching over conditions.

corr_whole <- dig_correlations(
    iris_corr,
    condition = NULL,
    xvars = starts_with("Sepal"),
    yvars = starts_with("Petal")
)

corr_whole

This is effectively a convenient way to compute a structured set of pairwise correlation tests between selected columns.

Notes on Interpretation

When reading discovered correlations, it is useful to keep the following points in mind:

• a large absolute estimate indicates a stronger relationship,
• p_value reflects statistical evidence for the chosen alternative, but should be interpreted with caution due to multiple comparisons (see below),
• support and n describe how much data contributed to the pattern,
• longer conditions describe more specific contexts, but usually with smaller support.

Conditional correlations are therefore most useful when the relationship between two variables changes across subgroups and would be hidden in a single global correlation.

Multiple Comparisons

When dig_correlations() is applied to a dataset, it simultaneously tests correlations for a potentially large number of condition–variable-pair combinations. Each test produces a p_value, but interpreting any individual p_value as if it were the result of a single pre-planned test is misleading: if hundreds of tests are performed at level 0.05, several false discoveries are expected by chance alone.

The patterns returned by dig_correlations() are therefore best understood as generated hypotheses - promising associations that deserve further scrutiny - rather than as confirmed findings. This is known as the problem of simultaneous statistical inference or multiple comparisons.

A standard remedy is to adjust the p-values to control either the family-wise error rate (FWER) or the false discovery rate (FDR):

• FWER-controlling methods (e.g. Bonferroni, Holm) ensure that the probability of making any false discovery across all tests stays below a chosen threshold. They are conservative when the number of tests is large.
• FDR-controlling methods (e.g. Benjamini–Hochberg, abbreviated BH) allow a small proportion of discoveries to be false positives. This is less stringent than FWER control and retains more patterns in exploratory analyses.

R's built-in p.adjust() function supports both families. The example below applies Holm correction (FWER) and Benjamini–Hochberg correction (FDR) to the result of a search:

corr_basic$p_holm <- p.adjust(corr_basic$p_value, method = "holm")
corr_basic$p_bh   <- p.adjust(corr_basic$p_value, method = "BH")

corr_basic[, c("condition", "xvar", "yvar", "p_value", "p_holm", "p_bh")]

After adjustment, you can filter by the corrected p-values:

corr_basic[corr_basic$p_bh < 0.05, ]

In a large exploratory search you may prefer the FDR approach (BH) because it keeps more patterns visible while still limiting the expected fraction of false discoveries. Use FWER control (Holm) when you need stronger guarantees.

Related Tools

dig_correlations() is a specialized wrapper around dig_grid(). If you need custom statistics on pairs of variables under generated conditions, see vignette("custom-patterns") for the more general workflow.

For interactive inspection of discovered patterns, you can also use:

explore(corr_basic, iris_corr)

Summary

This vignette showed how to search for conditional correlations with nuggets:

1. prepare logical condition predicates and numeric variables in one dataset,
2. use dig_correlations() to search over generated conditions,
3. select condition and variable columns with tidyselect expressions,
4. control the search with support, condition length, and result limits,
5. choose a correlation method appropriate for the data and interpretation.

For related material, see:

• vignette("data-preparation") for creating condition predicates,
• vignette("contrast-patterns") for condition-dependent statistical differences,
• vignette("custom-patterns") for custom grid-based analyses,
• vignette("nuggets") for the package overview.

nuggets documentation built on Aug. 20, 2026, 5:07 p.m.