Hi All, Should I get two different results if I were to repeat the kmeans clustering on the same data set? R : Copyright 2000, The R Development Core Team Version 1.1.1 (August 15, 2000) The following code library(mva) data(iris) kmeans(iris[1:4],5,20) generates: $cluster [1] 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 [38] 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 2 2 2 3 2 3 2 4 2 3 4 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 2 [75] 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 2 2 3 3 3 2 3 4 3 3 3 2 4 3 1 2 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 1 2 [112] 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 2 2 [149] 1 2 $centers Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width 1 6.912500 3.100000 5.846875 2.13125 2 6.252500 2.855000 4.815000 1.62500 3 5.620833 2.691667 4.075000 1.26250 4 5.000000 2.300000 3.275000 1.02500 5 5.006000 3.428000 1.462000 0.24600 $withinss [1] 18.703437 13.624750 5.219167 0.295000 15.151000 $size [1] 32 40 24 4 50 And if I do a further kmeans(iris[1:4],5,20) gives me: $cluster [1] 5 1 1 1 5 5 1 5 1 1 5 1 1 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 1 5 1 1 5 5 5 1 1 5 5 5 1 1 5 [38] 5 1 5 5 1 1 5 5 1 5 1 5 1 2 2 2 3 2 3 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 3 3 2 3 2 3 2 2 [75] 2 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 3 2 2 2 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 4 2 4 2 4 4 3 4 4 4 2 [112] 2 4 2 2 4 4 4 4 2 4 2 4 2 4 4 2 2 4 4 4 4 4 2 2 4 4 2 2 4 4 4 2 4 4 4 2 2 [149] 4 2 $centers Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width 1 4.704545 3.122727 1.413636 0.2000000 2 6.257143 2.861905 4.850000 1.6333333 3 5.532143 2.635714 3.960714 1.2285714 4 6.950000 3.106667 5.866667 2.1533333 5 5.242857 3.667857 1.500000 0.2821429 $withinss [1] 3.114091 14.800238 9.749286 17.555000 4.630714 $size [1] 22 42 28 30 28 In S-Plus (2000) the repetitive executions gives us the same result. Are these results generated by R consistent? Thanks, Athula. ********************************************************************** The information transmitted by this email is private and confidential and is intended for the use of the intended recipients specified therein. If you are neither an intended recipient nor an employee or agent responsible for delivery to an intended recipient, you should be aware that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately. ********************************************************************** -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-help mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-help-request at stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._