[R] factanal: error message

[Uwe Ligges]

Steve Friedman wrote:
> Hi everyone,
> 
> 
> I'm running a factor analysis on a correlation matrix with 32 rows and
> columns.
> 
> I get the following error when I issue the command sequence
> 
> mich.fac1 <- factanal(michcor, factor=1)
> Error in solve.default(cv) : system is computationally singular: reciprocal
> condition number = 3.24729e-18
>


As the message tells us: Your correlation/covariance matrix is (almost) 
singular, hence the inverse cannot be computed. Do you have many zeros 
in there??? Or identical columns for some other reasons?

Uwe Ligges


> 
> I'd really appreciate an explanation for this error and a solution to the
> problem
> 
> Thanks
> Steve
> 
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> 
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