R: Summary of the rPref Package

rPref {rPref} | R Documentation

## Summary of the rPref Package

### Description

rPref contains routines to select and visualize the maxima for a given strict partial order. This especially includes the computation of the Pareto frontier, also known as (Top-k) Skyline operator, and some generalizations (database preferences).

### Preference Composition/Selection

- Preferences are primarily composed from base preferences (see `base_pref`) and complex preferences (see `complex_pref`), where especially the Pareto operator for Skylines is such a complex preference.

- Some utility functions for preferences are collected in `general_pref`.

- Additionally some base preference macros are provided in `base_pref_macros`.

- The (top(-level)-k) preference selection `psel` allows to retrieve the maxima of a preference (or Pareto frontier, Skyline), constructed with the functions above, on a given data set.

### Visualization and Analysis of Preferences

- The visualization of the preference order in a Better-Than-Graph (Hasse diagram) is possible via `plot_btg`.

- The adjacency list of the Hasse diagram can be accessed via `get_hasse_diag`.

- Predecessors/successors in the Hasse diagram are calculated with the `pred_succ` functions.

- The Pareto frontier can be plotted using the `plot_front` function.

### String Output of Preferences

- The preference query for some preference-supporting DBMS can be given by `show.query`.

- A preference is partially evaluated and printed with `show.pref`.

### Vignettes

To learn the basics of rPref, start with the vignettes:

- A general introduction and some examples are given in

  `vignette("introduction", package = "rPref")`

- The visualization of preferences is explained in

  `vignette("visualization", package = "rPref")`

### Further Information

The rPref homepage is http://www.p-roocks.de/rpref. To submit bugs, feature requests or other comments, feel free to write a mail to me.

### Author(s)

Patrick Roocks, mail@p-roocks.de

[Package rPref version 1.3 Index]