Comparator-class {comparator}

Virtual Comparator Class

Description

This class represents a function for comparing pairs of objects. It is the base class from which other types of comparators (e.g. NumericComparator and StringComparator) are derived.

Slots

.Data

a function which takes a pair of arguments x and y, and returns the elementwise scores.

symmetric

a logical of length 1. If TRUE, the comparator is symmetric in its arguments—i.e. comparator(x, y) is identical to comparator(y, x).

distance

a logical of length 1. If TRUE, the comparator produces distances and satisfies comparator(x, x) = 0. The comparator may not satisfy all of the properties of a distance metric.

similarity

a logical of length 1. If TRUE, the comparator produces similarity scores.

tri_inequal

a logical of length 1. If TRUE, the comparator satisfies the triangle inequality. This is only possible (but not guaranteed) if distance = TRUE and symmetric = TRUE.