R: Setting time constraints and the counting method

seqeconstraint {TraMineR} | R Documentation

## Setting time constraints and the counting method

### Description

Function used to set time constraints and the counting method in methods (`seqe...`) for event sequences such as `seqefsub` for searching frequent subsequences or `seqeapplysub` for checking occurrences of subsequences.

### Usage

    seqeconstraint(max.gap = -1, window.size = -1, age.min = -1, age.max = -1,
      age.max.end = -1, count.method = 1, maxGap, windowSize, ageMin, ageMax,
    ageMaxEnd, countMethod)

### Arguments

`max.gap` | The maximum time gap between two events
`window.size` | The maximum time span accepted for subsequences
`age.min` | Minimal start time position allowed for subsequences. Ignored when equal to -1 (default).
`age.max` | Maximal start time position allowed for subsequences. Ignored when equal to -1 (default).
`age.max.end` | Maximal end time position allowed for subsequences. Ignored when equal to -1 (default).
`count.method` | By default, subsequences are counted only one time by sequence (`'COBJ'` method). Alternative counting methods are `'CDIST_O'`, `'CWIN'`, `'CMINWIN'` or `'CDIST'` respectively. See details.
`maxGap` | Deprecated. Use `max.gap` instead.
`windowSize` | Deprecated. Use `window.size` instead.
`ageMin` | Deprecated. Use `age.min` instead.
`ageMax` | Deprecated. Use `age.max` instead.
`ageMaxEnd` | Deprecated. Use `age.max.end` instead.
`countMethod` | Deprecated. Use `count.method` instead.

### Details

`max.gap`, `window.size`, `age.min`, `age.max` and `age.max.end`. If so, two events should not be separated by more than `max.gap` and the whole subsequence should not exceed a `window.size` time span. The other parameters specify the start and end age of the subsequence, it should start between `age.min` and `age.max` and finish before `age.max.end`. Parameters `age.min`, `age.max` and `age.max.end` are interpreted as the number of positions (time units) from the beginning of the sequence.

There are 5 options for the `count.method` argument. (1) By default, the count is the number of sequences that contain the subsequence (`"COBJ"` method). Alternatives are (2) `"CDIST_O"` (counts all distinct occurrences in each sequence including possibly overlapping occurrences, i.e., occurrences sharing a same event occurrence), (3) `"CWIN"` (number of slidden windows of length `window.size` that contain an occurrence of the subsequence), (4) `"CMINWIN"` (number of minimal windows of occurrence) and (5) `"CDIST"` (distinct occurrences without event occurrences overlap). See references.

### Value

A constraint object containing one item per constraint type.

### Author(s)

Matthias Studer, Nicolas S. Müller and Reto Bürgin (alternative counting methods) (with Gilbert Ritschard for the help page)

### References

Joshi, Mahesh V., George Karypis, and Vipin Kumar (2001) A Universal Formulation of Sequential Patterns Proceedings of the KDD'2001 Workshop on Temporal Data Mining, San Francisco.

Ritschard, G., A. Gabadinho, N.S. Müller and M. Studer (2008), Mining event sequences: A social science perspective, International Journal of Data Mining, Modelling and Management, IJDMMM, 1(1), 68-90.

### See Also

`seqefsub`, `seqeapplysub`

[Package TraMineR version 2.2-2 Index]