Multiple Factor Analysis by Example Using R

Chapter 10

Hierarchical Multiple Factor Analysis

Hierarchical multiple factor analysis (HMFA) is the most direct extension of multiple factor analysis (MFA): it is used with tables in which the variables are structured according to a hierarchy. In practice, this means a sequence of nested partitions. At first sight, one might be tempted to think that this is merely a curiosity, but HMFA has considerable application potential due to the increasingly complex nature of the data users wish to analyse simultaneously.

10.1 Data, Examples

We often want to analyse individuals x variables tables in which the structure of the variables is more complex than a simple partition. To illustrate this point, let us look back at the orange juices.

In fact, in ...