NAG CL Interface
g22yac (lm_formula)
1
Purpose
g22yac parses a text string containing a formula specifying a linear model and outputs a G22 handle to an internal data structure. This G22 handle can then be passed to various functions in
Chapter G22. In particular, the G22 handle can be passed to
g22ycc to produce a design matrix or
g22ydc to produce a vector of column inclusion flags suitable for use with functions in
Chapter G02.
2
Specification
The function may be called by the names: g22yac or nag_blgm_lm_formula.
3
Description
3.1
Background
Let denote a data matrix with observations on independent variables, denoted . Let denote a vector of observations on a dependent variable.
A linear model, , as the term is used in this function, expresses a relationship between the independent variables, , and the dependent variable. This relationship can be expressed as a series of additive terms , with each term, , representing either a single independent variable , called the main effect of , or the interaction between two or more independent variables. An interaction term, denoted here using the operator, allows the effect of an independent variable on the dependent variable to depend on the value of one or more other independent variables. As an example, the three-way interaction between and is denoted and describes a situation where the effect of one of these three variables is influenced by the value of the other two.
This function takes a description of
, supplied as a text string containing a formula, and outputs a G22 handle to an internal data structure. This G22 handle can then be passed to
g22ycc to produce a design matrix for use in analysis functions from other chapters, for example the regression functions of
Chapter G02.
A more detailed description of what is meant by a G22 handle can be found in
Section 2.1 in the
G22 Chapter Introduction.
3.2
Syntax
In its most verbose form can be described by one or more variable names, , and the two operators, and . In order to allow a wide variety of models to be specified compactly this syntax is extended to six operators (, , , , , ) and parentheses.
A formula describing the model is supplied to g22yac via a character string which must obey the following rules:
-
1.Variables can be denoted by arbitrary names, as long as
-
(i)The names used are a subset of those supplied to g22ybc when describing .
-
(ii)The names do not contain any of the characters in .
-
2.The operator denotes an interaction between two or more variables or terms, with denoting the three-way interaction between , and .
-
3.A term in can contain one or more variable names, separated using the operator, i.e., a term can be either a main effect or an interaction term between two or more variables.
-
(i)If a variable appears in an interaction term more than once, all subsequent appearances, after the first, are ignored, therefore, is the same as .
-
(ii)The ordering of the variables in an interaction term is ignored when comparing terms, therefore, is the same as . This ordering may have an effect when the resulting G22 handle is passed to another function, for example g22ycc.
-
(iii)Applying the operator to two terms appends one to the other, for example, if and , .
-
4.The operator allows additional terms to be included in , therefore, is a model that includes terms and .
-
(i)If a term is added to more than once, all subsequent appearances, after the first, are ignored, therefore, is the same as .
-
(ii)The ordering of the terms is ignored whilst parsing the formula, therefore, is the same as . This ordering may have an effect when the resulting G22 handle is passed to another function, for example g22ycc.
-
(iii)Internally, the terms are reordered so that all main effects come first, followed by two-way interactions, then three-way interactions, etc. The ordering within each of these categories is preserved.
-
5.The operator can be used as a shorthand notation denoting the main effects and all interactions between the variables involved. Therefore, is equivalent to and is equivalent to .
-
6.The operator removes a term from , therefore, is equivalent to as the three-way interaction, , usually present due to has been removed.
-
7.The operator is a shorthand way of specifying a series of variables, with being equivalent to .
-
(i)This operator can only be used if the variable names end in a numeric, therefore, would be valid, but would not.
-
(ii)The root part of both variable names (i.e., the part before the trailing numeric, so in the valid example above) must be the same.
-
(iii)The trailing numeric parts of the two variable names must be in ascending order.
-
8.The operator is a shorthand notation for a series of operators. is equivalent to which in turn is equivalent to .
-
(i)This notation is present primarily for use with the operator in examples of the form, which specifies a model containing the main effects for variables to as well as all two- and three-way interactions.
-
(ii)Using the operator on a single term has no effect, therefore, is the same as .
3.2.1
Precedence
Each operator has an associated default precedence, but this can be overridden through the use of parentheses. The default precedence is:
-
1.The operator, with the resulting expression is treated as if it was surrounded by parentheses. Therefore, is equivalent to .
-
2.The operator, with the resulting expression is treated as if it was surrounded by parentheses. Therefore, is equivalent to , which is the equivalent to .
-
3.The operator, so is equivalent to .
-
4.The operator.
-
(i)When using parentheses with the or operators the usual rules of multiplication apply, therefore, is equivalent to and is equivalent to .
-
(ii)Syntax of the following form is invalid: , where indicates an operator, unless one or more of those operators are and/or . Therefore, is invalid, whilst is valid.
-
5.The and operators have equal precedence.
-
(i)If the terms associated with a operator do not occur in the current expression they are ignored, therefore, is the equivalent to ; the part of the expression is calculated first and results in as the term does not exist in this particular sub-expression so cannot be removed.
3.2.2
Mean Effect / Intercept Term
A mean effect (or intercept term) can be explicitly added to a formula by specifying and can be explicitly excluded from the formula by specifying . For example, indicates a model with the main effects of two variables and a mean effect, whereas denotes the same model, but without the mean effect. The mean indicator can appear anywhere in the formula string as long as it is not contained within parentheses.
If the mean effect is not explicitly mentioned in the model formula, the model is assumed to include a mean effect.
3.3
Optional Parameters
g22yac accepts a number of optional parameters described in
Section 11. Usually these parameters are set via call to
g22zmc, however when specifying a subject term in a mixed effects linear regression model it is often more convenient to supply the information along with the rest of the formula. Therefore, writeable optional parameters can be set via the
formula argument. The delimiter
must be used between the main formula and the optional parameter. For example, supplying a formula of the form
, would specify a model formula of
and set the optional parameter
to
.
4
References
None.
5
Arguments
-
1:
– void **
Input/Output
-
On entry: must be set to
NULL, alternatively an existing G22 handle may be supplied in which case this function will destroy the supplied G22 handle as if
g22zac had been called.
On exit: holds a G22 handle to the internal data structure containing a description of the model
as specified in
formula. You
must not change the G22 handle other than through functions in
Chapter G22.
-
2:
– const char *
Input
-
On entry: a string containing the formula specifying
. See
Section 3 for details on the allowed model syntax.
-
3:
– NagError *
Input/Output
-
The NAG error argument (see
Section 7 in the Introduction to the NAG Library CL Interface).
6
Error Indicators and Warnings
- NE_ALLOC_FAIL
-
Dynamic memory allocation failed.
See
Section 3.1.2 in the Introduction to the NAG Library CL Interface for further information.
- NE_BAD_PARAM
-
On entry, argument had an illegal value.
- NE_HANDLE
-
On entry,
hform is not
NULL or a recognised G22 handle.
- NE_INTERNAL_ERROR
-
An internal error has occurred in this function. Check the function call and any array sizes. If the call is correct then please contact
NAG for assistance.
See
Section 7.5 in the Introduction to the NAG Library CL Interface for further information.
- NE_INVALID_FORMAT
-
After processing, the model contains no terms.
An invalid contrast specifier has been supplied.
The position in the formula string of the error is .
An operator was missing.
The position in the formula string of the error is .
Invalid specification for the colon operator.
The position in the formula string of the error is .
Invalid specification for the mean.
The position in the formula string of the error is .
Invalid specification for the power operator.
The position in the formula string of the error is .
Invalid use of an operator.
The position in the formula string of the error is .
Invalid variable name.
The position in the formula string of the error is .
Missing variable name.
The position in the formula string of the error is .
On entry, an
was supplied in
formula, but the expected delimiter ‘
’ was not found.
On entry, an
was supplied in
formula, but the supplied
was invalid.
The formula contained a mismatched parenthesis.
The position in the formula string of the error is .
- NE_INVALID_OPTION
-
On entry, an invalid
was supplied in
formula.
- NE_NO_LICENCE
-
Your licence key may have expired or may not have been installed correctly.
See
Section 8 in the Introduction to the NAG Library CL Interface for further information.
- NW_POTENTIAL_PROBLEM
-
A term contained a repeated variable with a different contrast specifier.
7
Accuracy
Not applicable.
8
Parallelism and Performance
Background information to multithreading can be found in the
Multithreading documentation.
g22yac is not threaded in any implementation.
None.
10
Example
This example reads in and parses a formula specifying a model,
, and displays the processed formula. A data matrix,
, is then read in and a design matrix constructed from
and
using
g22ycc.
The design matrix includes an explicit term for the mean effect.
See also the examples for
g22ybc,
g22ycc and
g22ydc.
10.1
Program Text
10.2
Program Data
10.3
Program Results
11
Optional Parameters
As well as the optional parameters common to all G22 handles described in
g22zmc and
g22znc, a number of additional optional parameters can be specified for a G22 handle holding the description of a model, as returned by
g22yac in
hform.
Each writeable optional parameter has an associated default value; to set any of them to a non-default value, use
g22zmc. The value of any optional parameter can be queried using
g22znc.
The remainder of this section can be skipped if you wish to use the default values for all optional parameters.
The following is a list of the optional parameters available. A full description of each optional parameter is provided in
Section 11.1.
All functions that make use of the G22 handle returned by g22yac combine it with a description of a data matrix, , to construct a design matrix, .
11.1
Description of the Optional Parameters
For each option, we give a summary line, a description of the optional parameter and details of constraints.
The summary line contains:
- a parameter value,
where the letters , and denote options that take character, integer and real values respectively;
- the default value.
Keywords and character values are case and white space insensitive.
This parameter controls the default contrasts used for the categorical independent variables appearing in the model. Six types of contrasts and dummy variables are available:
- Treatment contrasts relative to the first level of the variable will be used.
- Treatment contrasts relative to the last level of the variable will be used.
- Sum contrasts relative to the first level of the variable will be used.
- Sum contrasts relative to the last level of the variable will be used.
- Helmert contrasts will be used.
- Polynomial contrasts will be used.
- Dummy variables will be used rather than a contrast.
See
g22ycc for more information on contrasts, their effect on the design matrix and how they are constructed.
This parameter may have an
instance identifier associated with it (see
g22zmc and
g22znc). The
instance identifier must be the name of one of the variables appearing in the model supplied in
formula when the G22 handle was created. For example,
CONTRAST : VAR1 = HELMERT would set Helmert contrasts for the variable named
VAR1.
If no instance identifier is specified, the default contrast for all categorical variables in the model is changed, otherwise only the default contrast for the named variable is changed.
In some situations it might be necessary for a variable to use a different contrast, depending on where it appears in the model formula. In order to allow contrasts to be specified on a term by term basis the operator can be used in the model formula. The syntax for this operator is , where is one of: F, L, SF, SL, H, P or D, corresponding to treatment contrasts relative to the first and last levels, sum contrasts relative to the first and last levels, Helmert contrasts, polynomial contrasts or dummy variables respectively.
If the contrast has not been explicitly specified via the operator, the value obtained from the optional parameter is used.
For example, setting
formula to
VAR1 + VAR1@H.VAR2@P + VAR2@H.VAR3, specifies that the variable named
VAR1 should use the default contrasts in the first term and Helmert contrasts in the second term. The variable named
VAR2 should use polynomial contrasts in the second term and Helmert contrasts in the third term. The variable named
VAR3 should use the default contrasts in the third term.
Constraint:
, , , , , or .
Explicit Mean | | Default |
If , any mean effect included in the model will be explicitly added to the design matrix, , as a column of s.
If
, it is assumed that the function to which
will be passed treats the mean effect as a special case, see
mean in
g02dac for example.
Constraint:
or .
This parameter returns a verbose version of the model formula specified in
formula, expanded and simplified to only contain variable names, the operators
and
and any contrast identifiers present.
Storage Order | | Default |
This optional parameter controls how the design matrix,
, should be stored in its output array and only has an effect if the design matrix is being constructed using
g22ycc.
If , , the value for the th variable of the th observation of the design matrix is stored in .
If , , the value for the th variable of the th observation of the design matrix is stored in .
Where
x is the output parameter of the same name in
g22ycc.
Constraint:
or .
This parameter gives the subject terms associated with the
formula in a linear mixed effects model.
The supplied value must consist of a single term, representing either a single independent variable, or a single interaction term between two or more independent variables. All variables in the subject term must not also appear in the model formula.