KmeansSolution {SamplingStrata}

Initial solution obtained by applying kmeans clustering of atomic strata

Description

In order to speed the convergence towards the optimal solution, an initial one can be given as "suggestion" to "optimizeStrata" function. The function "KmeansSolution" produces this initial solution using the k-means algorithm by clustering atomic strata on the basis of the values of the means of target variables in them. Also, if the parameter "nstrata" is not indicated, the optimal number of clusters is determined inside each domain, and the overall solution is obtained by concatenating optimal clusters obtained in domains. The result is a dataframe with two columns: the first indicates the clusters, the second the domains.

Usage

KmeansSolution(strata, 
               errors, 
               nstrata=NA, 
			         minnumstrat=2,
               maxclusters = NA,
               showPlot=TRUE)

Arguments

strata

The (mandatory) dataframe containing the information related to atomic strata.

errors

The (mandatory) dataframe containing the precision constraints on target variables.

nstrata

Number of aggregate strata (if NULL, it is optimized by varying the number of cluster from 2 to half number of atomic strata). Default is NA.

minnumstrat

Minimum number of units to be selected in each stratum. Default is 2.

maxclusters

Maximum number of clusters to be considered in the execution of kmeans algorithm. If not indicated it will be set equal to the number of atomic strata divided by 2.

showPlot

Allows to visualise on a plot the different sample sizes for each number of aggregate strata. Default is TRUE.

Value

A dataframe containing the solution

Author(s)

Giulio Barcaroli

Examples

## Not run: 
library(SamplingStrata)
data(swisserrors)
data(swissstrata)

# suggestion
solutionKmean <- KmeansSolution(strata=swissstrata,
								errors=swisserrors,
								nstrata=NA,
								showPlot=TRUE)

# number of strata to be obtained in each domain		
nstrat <- tapply(solutionKmean$suggestions,
                 solutionKmean$domainvalue,
                 FUN=function(x) length(unique(x)))

# optimisation of sampling strata
solution <- optimStrata ( 
  method = "atomic",
  errors = swisserrors, 
  strata = swissstrata,
  nStrata = nstrat,
  suggestions = solutionKmean
)

## End(Not run)