[R] lmer error:flist must be a non-empty list

[Dimitris Rizopoulos]

Hi Margaret,

if you look at the help page of lmer() you'll see that there is no 
'random' argument (as there is in lme() in the nlme package). The way 
to specify random-effects structure in lmer() is through the 'formula' 
argument. So in your case try this:

lmer(ISH ~ ArrayPathology2 + (1|PatientID), data=HSDB4.noNA, 
family="binomial")

I hope it helps.

Best,
Dimitris

----
Dimitris Rizopoulos
Ph.D. Student
Biostatistical Centre
School of Public Health
Catholic University of Leuven

Address: Kapucijnenvoer 35, Leuven, Belgium
Tel: +32/16/336899
Fax: +32/16/337015
Web: http://www.med.kuleuven.ac.be/biostat/
     http://www.student.kuleuven.ac.be/~m0390867/dimitris.htm



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Margaret Gardiner-Garden" <m.gardiner-garden at garvan.org.au>
To: <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
Sent: Wednesday, May 04, 2005 9:38 AM
Subject: [R] lmer error:flist must be a non-empty list


> Hi,
>
> I was wondering if anyone could give me advice regarding using the 
> lmer
> command in lme4 package to do logistic regression (mixed effects 
> model).
>
> I use the following command
> lmer(ISH ~ArrayPathology2, random=~1|PatientID, data=HSDB4.noNA,
> family="binomial")
>
> where ISH is outcome(0 or 1), ArrayPathology2 is the variable of
> interest(factor), PatientID is random effect(factor), and HSDB4.noNA 
> is the
> complete dataframe (column names ArrayPathology2, Patient ID and ISH 
> etc)
>
> There are no NAs in the data.
>
> I get the following error regardless of the R version (2.0.1, 2.1.0, 
> or
> 2.1.0devel)
>
>> lmer(ISH ~ArrayPathology2, random=~1|PatientID, data=HSDB4.noNA,
> family="binomial")
> Error in lmer(ISH ~ ArrayPathology2, random = ~1 | PatientID, data =
> HSDB4.noNA,  :
>        flist must be a non-empty list
>
> Below is the sessionInfo() for R version 2.1.0
>
> R version 2.1.0, 2005-04-18, i386-pc-mingw32
>
> attached base packages:
> [1] "methods"   "stats"     "graphics"  "grDevices" "utils" 
> "datasets"
> [7] "base"
>
> other attached packages:
>        lme4 latticeExtra      lattice       Matrix
>    "0.95-6"      "0.1-3"     "0.11-6"     "0.95-7"
>
> I got the same error if I used the older version of lme4  "0.95-1" 
> which was
> mentioned in a mail to this list serve on 11th April 2005
>
> I am using Microsoft Windows XP Professional Version 2002.
>
> I would really appreciate any advice!!
>
> Thanks so much
>
> Dr Margaret Gardiner-Garden
> Garvan Institute of Medical Research
> Sydney Australia
>
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