R help - Dec 2010 - Any functions to manipulate (merge, cut, remove) hclust objects? (maybe through phylo?)

Hello all,

I'm now working with hclust objects and was hoping to perform some basic
editing on them like:

   - Joining = the merging of two hclust objects (so they will share one
   root)
   - Splicing = So to cut/extract a branch out of an hclust object - that by
   itself will be an hclust object.

I noticed I could extract one element of an hclust object by turning it into
a dendrogram, but that doesn't enable me to turn it back into an hclust
object.

Are there any functions that can aid with this?  Maybe through the ape
package and the phylo objects?

Thanks,
Tal



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>>>>> "TG" == Tal Galili <tal.galili at
gmail.com>
>>>>>     on Mon, 27 Dec 2010 23:34:33 +0200 writes:
    TG> Hello all, I'm now working with hclust objects and was
    TG> hoping to perform some basic editing on them like:

    TG>    - Joining = the merging of two hclust objects (so
    TG> they will share one root) - Splicing = So to cut/extract
    TG> a branch out of an hclust object - that by itself will
    TG> be an hclust object.

    TG> I noticed I could extract one element of an hclust
    TG> object by turning it into a dendrogram, but that doesn't
    TG> enable me to turn it back into an hclust object.

Why should you "turn it back" ?
What do you want to use them for

The intent of the "dendrogram" has been that it is more flexible
(and more general) than "hclust" and can be printed, plotted,
manipulated, ... better than hclust ones.

Regards,
Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich
 

    TG> Are there any functions that can aid with this?  Maybe
    TG> through the ape package and the phylo objects?

    TG> Thanks, Tal