scipy.cluster.hierarchy.

median#

scipy.cluster.hierarchy.median(y)[source]#

Perform median/WPGMC linkage.

See linkage for more information on the return structure and algorithm.

The following are common calling conventions:

  1. Z = median(y)

    Performs median/WPGMC linkage on the condensed distance matrix y. See linkage for more information on the return structure and algorithm.

  2. Z = median(X)

    Performs median/WPGMC linkage on the observation matrix X using Euclidean distance as the distance metric. See linkage for more information on the return structure and algorithm.

Parameters:
yndarray

A condensed distance matrix. A condensed distance matrix is a flat array containing the upper triangular of the distance matrix. This is the form that pdist returns. Alternatively, a collection of m observation vectors in n dimensions may be passed as an m by n array.

Returns:
Zndarray

The hierarchical clustering encoded as a linkage matrix.

See also

linkage

for advanced creation of hierarchical clusterings.

scipy.spatial.distance.pdist

pairwise distance metrics

Notes

median has experimental support for Python Array API Standard compatible backends in addition to NumPy. Please consider testing these features by setting an environment variable SCIPY_ARRAY_API=1 and providing CuPy, PyTorch, JAX, or Dask arrays as array arguments. The following combinations of backend and device (or other capability) are supported.

Library

CPU

GPU

NumPy

✅

n/a

CuPy

n/a

⛔

PyTorch

✅

⛔

JAX

✅

⛔

Dask

⚠️ merges chunks

n/a

See Support for the array API standard for more information.

Examples

>>> from scipy.cluster.hierarchy import median, fcluster
>>> from scipy.spatial.distance import pdist

First, we need a toy dataset to play with:

x x    x x
x        x

x        x
x x    x x

>>> X = [[0, 0], [0, 1], [1, 0],
...      [0, 4], [0, 3], [1, 4],
...      [4, 0], [3, 0], [4, 1],
...      [4, 4], [3, 4], [4, 3]]

Then, we get a condensed distance matrix from this dataset:

>>> y = pdist(X)

Finally, we can perform the clustering:

>>> Z = median(y)
>>> Z
array([[ 0.        ,  1.        ,  1.        ,  2.        ],
       [ 3.        ,  4.        ,  1.        ,  2.        ],
       [ 9.        , 10.        ,  1.        ,  2.        ],
       [ 6.        ,  7.        ,  1.        ,  2.        ],
       [ 2.        , 12.        ,  1.11803399,  3.        ],
       [ 5.        , 13.        ,  1.11803399,  3.        ],
       [ 8.        , 15.        ,  1.11803399,  3.        ],
       [11.        , 14.        ,  1.11803399,  3.        ],
       [18.        , 19.        ,  3.        ,  6.        ],
       [16.        , 17.        ,  3.5       ,  6.        ],
       [20.        , 21.        ,  3.25      , 12.        ]])

The linkage matrix Z represents a dendrogram - see scipy.cluster.hierarchy.linkage for a detailed explanation of its contents.

We can use scipy.cluster.hierarchy.fcluster to see to which cluster each initial point would belong given a distance threshold:

>>> fcluster(Z, 0.9, criterion='distance')
array([ 7,  8,  9, 10, 11, 12,  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  6], dtype=int32)
>>> fcluster(Z, 1.1, criterion='distance')
array([5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4], dtype=int32)
>>> fcluster(Z, 2, criterion='distance')
array([3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2], dtype=int32)
>>> fcluster(Z, 4, criterion='distance')
array([1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1], dtype=int32)

Also, scipy.cluster.hierarchy.dendrogram can be used to generate a plot of the dendrogram.

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