code#

Purpose#

Allows a new variable to be created (coded) with different values depending upon which one of a set of logical expressions is true.

Format#

y = code(logical, new_vals)#
Parameters:

  • logical (NxK matrix) – matrix of 1’s and 0’s. If any row contains more than a single 1, the function will terminate with an error message.

  • new_vals ((K+1)x1 vector) – the values to be assigned to the new variable

Returns:

y (Nx1 vector) – containing the new values.

Examples#

Example 1#

Suppose we have a vector of blood pressure data that we want to separate into two classes. Class 1 will contain the observations with a blood pressure value below 120. The others will belong to class 2.

// Blood pressure data
x = { 91,
     121,
      99,
     135,
     110,
     155 };

// Values for the classes
new_val = { 1,
            2 };

/*
** Create a vector containing a 1 for every element
** which is less than 120, or a 0 otherwise
*/
logical = x .<  120;

/*
** Create a new vector which contains the class
** assignment for each element in 'x'
*/
x_class = code(logical, new_val);

After the code above:

x = 91   logical =  1   x_class = 1
   121              0             2
    99              1             1
   135              0             2
   110              1             1
   155              0             2

Example 2#

Continuing with the blood pressure example from above, we will now create a new categorical variable with 3 levels. Level 1 will contain observations less than or equal to 100. Level 2 will contain observations greater than 100 and less than or equal to 120. Level 3 will contain observations greater than 120.

// Blood pressure data
x = { 91,
     121,
      99,
     135,
     110,
     155 };

// Values for the classes
new_val = { 1,
            2,
            3 };

/*
** Create a vector containing a 1 for every element
** which is less than 100, or a 0 otherwise
*/
logical_1 = x .<= 100;

/*
** Create a vector containing a 1 for every element
** which is between 100 and 120, or a 0 otherwise
*/
logical_2 = x .> 100 .and x .<=  120;

/*
** Form a 2 column logical vector using
** horizontal concatenation
*/
logical = logical_1 ~ logical_2;

/*
** Create a new vector which contains the class
** assignment for each element in 'x'
*/
x_class = code(logical, new_val);

After the code above:

x =  91    logical = 1 0     x_class = 1
    121              0 0               3
     99              1 0               1
    135              0 0               3
    110              0 1               2
    155              0 0               3

Remarks#

  • The “dot” conditional and boolean operators can be used to create logical.

  • For every row in logical, if a 1 is in the first column, the first element of new_vals is used. If a 1 is in the second column, the second element of new_vals is used, and so on.

  • If there are only zeros in the row, the last element of new_vals is used. This is the default value.

  • If there is more than a single 1 in any row of logical, the function will terminate with an error message.

See also

Functions recode(), reclassifyCuts(), reclassify(), substute(), rescale(), dummy()

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