[R] Gower Similarity Coefficient

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Chuck" == Chuck Cleland <ccleland at optonline.net>
>>>>>     on Mon, 14 Aug 2006 04:53:55 -0400 writes:

    Chuck> Timothy Rye wrote:
    >> I'm interested in clustering my data using the Gower
    >> Similarity Coefficient, and I was wondering if R is
    >> capable of using that metric
    >> 
    >> Timothy Rye

    Chuck> RSiteSearch("Gower") points to a number of relevant
    Chuck> messages in the archives.  It also reveals gdist() in
    Chuck> the mvpart package, vegdist() in the vegan package,
    Chuck> and dist.binary() in the ade4 package, which may do
    Chuck> what you want.

The daisy() function from the package "cluster"
(which is *recommended* hence part of every complete R installation)
is also based on Gower's (dis)similarity coefficient.

So you don't need to install a new package
[But I need to add the word 'Gower' to a better place on
 daisy()'s help page ...]

Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich.