Cluster analysis is generally done in a series of steps. Here are things to consider in a typical cluster analysis:
- Objects to cluster: What are the objects? Typically, they should be representative of the cluster structure to be present. Also, they should be randomly sampled if generalization of a population is required.
- Variables to be used: The input variables are the basis on which clusters are formed. Popular clustering techniques assume that the variables are numeric in scale, although you might work with binary data or a mix of numeric and categorical data.
- Missing values: Typically, you begin with the flat file of objects in rows and variables in columns. In the presence of missing data, you might either ...