nndist.ppx: Nearest Neighbour Distances in Any Dimensions

In spatstat/spatstat.geom: Geometrical Functionality of the 'spatstat' Family

Nearest Neighbour Distances in Any Dimensions

Description

Computes the distance from each point to its nearest neighbour in a multi-dimensional point pattern. Alternatively computes the distance to the second nearest neighbour, or third nearest, etc.

Usage

  ## S3 method for class 'ppx'
nndist(X, ..., k=1, by=NULL)

Arguments

X	Multi-dimensional point pattern (object of class "ppx").
...	Arguments passed to coords.ppx to determine which coordinates should be used.
k	Integer, or integer vector. The algorithm will compute the distance to the kth nearest neighbour.
by	Optional. A factor, which separates X into groups. The algorithm will compute the distance to the nearest point in each group.

Details

This function computes the Euclidean distance from each point in a multi-dimensional point pattern to its nearest neighbour (the nearest other point of the pattern). If k is specified, it computes the distance to the kth nearest neighbour.

The function nndist is generic; this function nndist.ppx is the method for the class "ppx".

The argument k may be a single integer, or an integer vector. If it is a vector, then the kth nearest neighbour distances are computed for each value of k specified in the vector.

If there is only one point (if x has length 1), then a nearest neighbour distance of Inf is returned. If there are no points (if x has length zero) a numeric vector of length zero is returned.

If the argument by is given, it should be a factor, of length equal to the number of points in X. This factor effectively partitions X into subsets, each subset associated with one of the levels of X. The algorithm will then compute, for each point of X, the distance to the nearest neighbour in each subset.

To identify which point is the nearest neighbour of a given point, use nnwhich.

To find the nearest neighbour distances from one point pattern to another point pattern, use nncross.

By default, both spatial and temporal coordinates are extracted. To obtain the spatial distance between points in a space-time point pattern, set temporal=FALSE.

Value

Numeric vector or matrix containing the nearest neighbour distances for each point.

If k = 1 (the default), the return value is a numeric vector v such that v[i] is the nearest neighbour distance for the ith data point.

If k is a single integer, then the return value is a numeric vector v such that v[i] is the kth nearest neighbour distance for the ith data point.

If k is a vector, then the return value is a matrix m such that m[i,j] is the k[j]th nearest neighbour distance for the ith data point.

Distance values

The values returned by nndist(X) are distances, expressed as multiples of the unit of length of the spatial coordinates in X. The unit of length is given by unitname(X).

Note that, if the unit of length in X is a composite expression such as ‘2 microns’, then the values of nndist(X) are expressed as multiples of 2 microns, rather than being expressed in microns.

Warnings

An infinite or NA value is returned if the distance is not defined (e.g. if there is only one point in the point pattern).

Author(s)

\adrian

See Also

nndist, pairdist, nnwhich

Examples

   df <- data.frame(x=runif(5),y=runif(5),z=runif(5),w=runif(5))
   X <- ppx(data=df)

   # nearest neighbours
   d <- nndist(X)

   # second nearest neighbours
   d2 <- nndist(X, k=2)

   # first, second and third nearest
   d1to3 <- nndist(X, k=1:3)

   # nearest neighbour distances to each group
   marks(X) <- factor(c("a","a", "b", "b", "b"))
   nndist(X, by=marks(X))
   nndist(X, by=marks(X), k=1:2)

spatstat/spatstat.geom documentation built on Feb. 20, 2025, 7:24 p.m.