R: Initialization of missing values

initialise {VIM} | R Documentation

## Initialization of missing values

### Description

Rough estimation of missing values in a vector according to its type.

### Usage

    initialise(x, mixed, method = "kNN", mixed.constant = NULL)

### Arguments

`x` | a vector.
`mixed` | a character vector containing the names of variables of type mixed (semi-continous).
`method` | Method used for Initialization (median or kNN)
`mixed.constant` | vector with length equal to the number of semi-continuous variables specifying the point of the semi-continuous distribution with non-zero probability

### Details

Missing values are imputed with the mean for vectors of class `"numeric"`, with the median for vectors of class `"integer"`, and with the mode for vectors of class `"factor"`. Hence, `x` should be prepared in the following way: assign class `"numeric"` to numeric vectors, assign class `"integer"` to ordinal vectors, and assign class `"factor"` to nominal or binary vectors.

### Value

the initialized vector.

### Note

The function is used internally by some imputation algorithms.

### Author(s)

Matthias Templ, modifications by Andreas Alfons

[Package VIM version 5.1.1 Index]