1. Home
  2. FACSORT procedure

FACSORT procedure

Sorts the levels of a factor according to an index vector (R.W. Payne).

Options

DIRECTION = string token Direction in which to sort the index (ascending, descending); default asce
SETATTRIBUTES = string tokens Which aspects of each NEWFACTOR to define (levels, labels, values); default * i.e. labels and values if defined for FACTOR, also levels if not the integers 1,2…

Parameters

FACTOR = factors Factors whose levels are to be reordered
INDEX = variate, text or one-way table Index vectors defining the ordering of the levels of each factor
NEWFACTOR = factors New factors with reordered levels; if unset, the original FACTOR is redefined
NEWLEVELS = variates Saves the (reordered) levels as defined for each NEWFACTOR

Description

This procedure reorders the levels of a factor. The factor is specified by the FACTOR parameter. The NEWFACTOR parameter can specify the identifier for the new reordered factor (so that FACTOR is left unchanged). If this is not supplied, the original FACTOR is redefined with its levels in the new order.

The order is defined by an index vector, specified by the INDEX parameter. This can be a variate, or a text, or a one-way table, whose number of values is equal to the number of levels of the factor. The levels are thus sorted in parallel with the INDEX (using the SORT directive), and the DIRECTION option indicates whether this is to be into ascending or descending order.

The SETATTRIBUTES option specifies which of the labels, levels and values to define for the NEWFACTOR. If SETATTRIBUTES is not set, the default is to define whichever of these has been defined for the FACTOR. In particular, note that levels are then not defined if the FACTOR levels are simply 1,2…

The NEWLEVELS parameter can specify a variate to save the levels of the NEWFACTOR. You can use this as the setting of the OLDPOSITIONS and NEWPOSITIONS parameters of the COMBINE directive in order to reorder tables classified by the factor. Or, you can discover the (ordinal) number of the original level corresponding to each new level by

GETATTRIBUTE [ATTRIBUTE=levels] FACTOR; SAVE=FacLev

CALCULATE OldLevelNumber\

          = POSITION(NEWLEVELS; FacLev['levels'])

Options: DIRECTION, SETATTRIBUTES.

Parameters: FACTOR, INDEX, NEWFACTOR, NEWLEVELS.

Method

FACSORT uses the standard Genstat manipulation commands, such as SORT.

Action with RESTRICT

Any restrictions are ignored.

See also

Procedures: FACAMEND, FACEXCLUDEUNUSED, FACLEVSTANDARDIZE, FACUNIQUE, FDISTINCTFACTORS.
Commands for: Calculations and manipulation.

Example

CAPTION 'FACSORT example',\
        'Data from Snedecor & Cochran (1980), Statistical Methods',\
        '(seventh edition) p. 305.';\
        STYLE=meta,plain
FACTOR  [NVALUES=60; LABELS=!T(Beef,Cereal,Pork); VALUES=(1...3)20] Source
FACTOR  [NVALUES=60; LABELS=!T(High,Low); VALUES=3(1,2)10] Amount
VARIATE [NVALUES=60] Gain
READ    Gain
 73  98  94  90 107  49
102  74  79  76  95  82
118  56  96  90  97  73
104 111  98  64  80  86
 81  95 102  86  98  81
107  88 102  51  74  97
100  82 108  72  74 106
 87  77  91  90  67  70
117  86 120  95  89  61
111  92 105  78  58  82 :
TREATMENTS Source*Amount
ANOVA      [PRINT=means; FPROBABILITY=yes] Gain
AKEEP      Source*Amount; MEANS=SourceMeans,AmountMeans,SourceByAmountMeans
FACSORT    [SETATTRIBUTE=levels,labels] Source; INDEX=SourceMeans;\
           NEWFACTOR=Sources; NEWLEVELS=SourceLev
&          Amount; INDEX=AmountMeans; NEWFACTOR=Amounts; NEWLEVELS=AmountLev
COMBINE    [OLDSTRUCTURE=SourceMeans; NEWSTRUCTURE=SortedSourceMeans]\
           OLDDIMENSION=Source; NEWDIMENSION=Sources;\
           OLDPOSITIONS=SourceLev; NEWPOSITIONS=SourceLev
PRINT      SourceMeans,SortedSourceMeans
COMBINE    [OLDSTRUCTURE=AmountMeans; NEWSTRUCTURE=SortedAmountMeans]\
           OLDDIMENSION=Amount; NEWDIMENSION=Amounts;\
           OLDPOSITIONS=AmountLev; NEWPOSITIONS=AmountLev
PRINT      AmountMeans,SortedAmountMeans
COMBINE    [OLDSTRUCTURE=SourceByAmountMeans;\
           NEWSTRUCTURE=SortedSourceByAmountMeans]\
           OLDDIMENSION=Amount,Source; NEWDIMENSION=Amounts,Sources;
           OLDPOSITIONS=AmountLev,SourceLev; NEWPOSITIONS=AmountLev,SourceLev
PRINT      SourceByAmountMeans,SortedSourceByAmountMeans
Updated on September 2, 2019

Was this article helpful?