R help - Jan 2015 - sparse matrix from vector outer product

Hi,

creating a matrix from two vectors a, b by multiplying each combination can
be done e.g. via

a %*% t(b)

or via

outer(a, b)  # default for third argument is '*'

But this yields a normal matrix.

Is there an efficient way to create sparse matrices (from the Matrix
package) like that?

Right now i?m doing

a.sparse = as(a, 'sparseVector')
b.sparse = as(t(b), 'sparseMatrix')
a.sparse %*% b.sparse

but this strikes me as wasteful.
?

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>>>>> Philipp A <flying-sheep at web.de>
>>>>>     on Wed, 14 Jan 2015 14:02:40 +0000 writes:
    > Hi,
    > creating a matrix from two vectors a, b by multiplying each combination
can
    > be done e.g. via

    > a %*% t(b)

    > or via

    > outer(a, b)  # default for third argument is '*'

really the best (most efficient) way would be

   tcrossprod(a, b)

    > But this yields a normal matrix.
of course.

Please always use small self-contained example code,
here, e.g.,

a <- numeric(17); a[3*(1:5)] <- 10*(5:1)
b <- numeric(12); b[c(2,3,7,11)] <- 1:3


    > Is there an efficient way to create sparse matrices (from the Matrix
    > package) like that?

    > Right now i?m doing

    > a.sparse = as(a, 'sparseVector')
    > b.sparse = as(t(b), 'sparseMatrix')
    > a.sparse %*% b.sparse

    > but this strikes me as wasteful.

not really wasteful I think. But there is a nicer and more efficient way :

require(Matrix)
tcrossprod(as(a, "sparseVector"),
           as(b, "sparseVector"))

now also gives

 17 x 12 sparse Matrix of class "dgCMatrix"

  [1,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
  [2,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
  [3,] . 50 100 . . . 150 . . . 50 .
  [4,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
  [5,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
  [6,] . 40  80 . . . 120 . . . 40 .
  [7,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
  [8,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
  [9,] . 30  60 . . .  90 . . . 30 .
 [10,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
 [11,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
 [12,] . 20  40 . . .  60 . . . 20 .
 [13,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
 [14,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
 [15,] . 10  20 . . .  30 . . . 10 .
 [16,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
 [17,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>

thanks, that sounds good!

Martin Maechler <maechler at stat.math.ethz.ch> schrieb am Thu Jan 15 2015
at
09:07:04:
> >>>>> Philipp A <flying-sheep at web.de>
> >>>>>     on Wed, 14 Jan 2015 14:02:40 +0000 writes:
>
>     > Hi,
>     > creating a matrix from two vectors a, b by multiplying each
> combination can
>     > be done e.g. via
>
>     > a %*% t(b)
>
>     > or via
>
>     > outer(a, b)  # default for third argument is '*'
>
> really the best (most efficient) way would be
>
>    tcrossprod(a, b)
>
>     > But this yields a normal matrix.
> of course.
>
> Please always use small self-contained example code,
> here, e.g.,
>
> a <- numeric(17); a[3*(1:5)] <- 10*(5:1)
> b <- numeric(12); b[c(2,3,7,11)] <- 1:3
>
>
>     > Is there an efficient way to create sparse matrices (from the
Matrix
>     > package) like that?
>
>     > Right now i?m doing
>
>     > a.sparse = as(a, 'sparseVector')
>     > b.sparse = as(t(b), 'sparseMatrix')
>     > a.sparse %*% b.sparse
>
>     > but this strikes me as wasteful.
>
> not really wasteful I think. But there is a nicer and more efficient way :
>
> require(Matrix)
> tcrossprod(as(a, "sparseVector"),
>            as(b, "sparseVector"))
>
> now also gives
>
>  17 x 12 sparse Matrix of class "dgCMatrix"
>
>   [1,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>   [2,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>   [3,] . 50 100 . . . 150 . . . 50 .
>   [4,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>   [5,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>   [6,] . 40  80 . . . 120 . . . 40 .
>   [7,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>   [8,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>   [9,] . 30  60 . . .  90 . . . 30 .
>  [10,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>  [11,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>  [12,] . 20  40 . . .  60 . . . 20 .
>  [13,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>  [14,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>  [15,] . 10  20 . . .  30 . . . 10 .
>  [16,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
>  [17,] .  .   . . . .   . . . .  . .
> >
>
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