Question

I have an MCA object generated from function MCA in package missMDA, which returns several types of results from Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Of these, I want to be able to use the ‘dist’ function, if appropriate, to calculate all pairwise 2d distances among the coordinates. Before I can do that, it seems that I need to figure out how to specifically reference the vectors of X and Y coordinates from this object, but when I ask for mydata$var$coord I get an unruly list of values, and I’m not sure how to send the results to an appropriate format that the dist function can use.

I am also interested in learning how to understand the structure of different kinds of objects in general, so that I have will a clearer roadmap for referencing their components in the future (and don’t have to come groveling back to all of you seeking help with that!).

My apologies if I haven’t stated my question clearly enough. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Figured out what to do, which is (apparently) R 101:

names(mydata)

Gave me the appropriate information about the components of this object (a list of type MCA). From this, I was able to reference the component of interest –

mydata$ind$coord

mydata$var$coord

I guess it pays to be patient!