How to use inbuilt dist() function In R Language

Method 1:Using a custom function

R provides inbuilt dist function using which we can calculate six types of distances including Minkowski distance. This function accepts a two-dimensional vector or a matrix as a parameter. This function is quite useful as it calculates the Minkowski distance between each unique pair of vectors specified in a two-dimensional vector.

Syntax: dist(vect, method = “minkowski”, p = integer, diag = TRUE or FALSE, upper = TRUE or FALSE)

Parameters:

vect: A two-dimensional vector

method: It must be equal to “minkowski”

p: It must be equal to an integer

diag: logical value (TRUE or FALSE) that conveys whether the diagonal of the distance matrix should be printed by print.dist or not.

upper: logical value (TRUE or FALSE) that conveys whether the upper triangle of the distance matrix should be printed by print.dist or not.

Return type:

It return an object of class “dist” which represents Minkowski distance between each unique pair of rows or vectors.

Note: diag and upper parameters are optional

Example 1: Implementation using vectors of equal length.

R

# R program to illustrate how to calculate
# Minkowski distance By using inbuilt dist()
# function
 
# Initializing a vector
vect1 <- c(1, 4, 8, 9, 2, 3)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect2 <- c(9, 4, 1, 2, 4, 7)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect3 <- c(1, 7, 9, 3, 2, 8)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect4 <- c(2, 1, 4, 7, 8, 9)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect5 <- c(1, 4, 8, 3, 9, 2)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect6 <- c(3, 7, 8, 6, 5, 9)
 
#Row bind vectors into a single matrix
twoDimensionalVect <- rbind(vect1, vect2, vect3,
                            vect4, vect5, vect6)
 
print("Minkowski distance between each pair of vectors is: ")
cat("\n\n")
 
# Calculate Minkowski distance between vectors
# using built in dist method
# By passing two-dimensional vector as a parameter
# Since we want to calculate Minkowski distance
# between each unique pair of vectors
# That is why we are passing Minkowski as a method
dist(twoDimensionalVect, method = "minkowski", 
     diag = TRUE, upper = TRUE p = 2)

Output:

Note that the length of all vectors present in a two-dimensional vector has to be the same. Otherwise, the compiler will produce a warning message.

Example 2: Implementation using vectors of unequal length.

R

# R program to illustrate
# how to calculate Minkowski distance
# By using inbuilt dist() function
 
# Initializing a vector
# Note that the length of vec1 is one
# more than the other vectors
vect1 <- c(2, 4, 1, 9, 2, 3, 10)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect2 <- c(4, 8, 1, 2, 4, 7)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect3 <- c(11, 7, 9, 3, 2, 8)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect4 <- c(21, 1, 4, 7, 8, 9)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect5 <- c(11, 4, 8, 3, 9, 21)
 
# Initializing another vector
vect6 <- c(6, 7, 8, 6, 5, 9)
 
#Row bind vectors into a single matrix
twoDimensionalVect <- rbind(vect1, vect2,
                            vect3, vect4, 
                            vect5, vect6)
 
print("Minkowski distance between each pair of vectors is: ")
cat("\n\n")
 
# Calculate Minkowski distance between
# vectors using built in dist method
# By passing two-dimensional vector as a parameter
# Since we want to calculate Minkowski
# distance between each unique pair of vectors
# That is why we are passing Minkowski as a method
dist(twoDimensionalVect, method = "minkowski", 
     diag = TRUE, upper = TRUE p = 2)