Calculating distance between categorical variables

In this exercise you will explore how to calculate binary (Jaccard) distances. In order to calculate distances we will first have to dummify our categories using the dummy.data.frame() from the library dummies

You will use a small collection of survey observations stored in the data frame job_survey with the following columns:

job_satisfaction Possible options: "Hi", "Mid", "Low"
is_happy Possible options: "Yes", "No"

This exercise is part of the course

Cluster Analysis in R

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Exercise instructions

Create a dummified data frame dummy_survey.
Generate a Jaccard distance matrix for the dummified survey data dist_survey using the dist() function using the parameter method = 'binary'.
Print the original data and the distance matrix.
- Note the observations with a distance of 0 in the original data (1, 2, and 3).

Hands-on interactive exercise

Have a go at this exercise by completing this sample code.

# Dummify the Survey Data
dummy_survey <- ___

# Calculate the Distance
dist_survey <- ___

# Print the Original Data
___

# Print the Distance Matrix
___

Edit and Run Code