[R] Discriminant function analysis

[Tyler Smith]

On 2008-02-06, Birgit Lemcke <birgit.lemcke at systbot.uzh.ch> wrote:
>
> I am using R 2.6.1 on a PowerBook G4.
> I would like to perform a discriminant function analysis. I found lda  
> in MASS but as far as I understood, is it only working with  
> explanatory variables of the class factor. 

I think you are mistaken. If you reread the help for lda() you'll see
that the grouping has to be a factor, but the explanatory variables
should be numeric.

> My dataset contains variables of the classes factor and numeric. Is
> there another function that is able to handle this?

The numeric variables are fine. The factor variables may have to be
recoded into dummy binary variables, I'm not sure if lda() will deal
with them properly otherwise.

HTH,

Tyler