loess.control
Computational Options for Loess Fitting
Description
Specifies computational options used within the 
control argument of loess. 
Usage
loess.control(surface = c("interpolate", "direct"), statistics =
    c("approximate", "exact"), trace.hat = c("exact", "approximate"),
    cell = 0.2, iterations = 4, ...) 
Arguments
| surface | determines how the fitted surface is computed. 
 "interpolate" (the default) specifies that the fitted surface is 
computed using an interpolation method. Use "interpolate" 
unless special circumstances warrant. 
 "direct" specifies that the fitted surface is computed directly
at all points.
 | 
| statistics | determines how the statistical quantities are computed. 
 "approximate" (the default) specifies an approximate computation.  
 "exact" specifies an exact computation. Use only for 
testing the approximation in statistical development. It is not meant 
for routine usage because computation time can be horrendous.
 | 
| trace.hat | 
The default is "exact" for n < 500 and "approximate" otherwise. 
If statistics is "exact", an exact computation is always done for the 
trace. If statistics is "approximate", 
determines the computational method used to compute the trace of the hat 
matrix, which is used in the computation of the statistical quantities. 
 If statistics is "exact", an exact computation is done.
Normally this computation is quite fast on the fastest machines until n, 
the number of observations, is 1000 or more, but for very slow machines, 
computation can slow at n = 300.
 | 
| cell | if surface is specified as interpolate, cell 
specifies the maximum cell size of the k-d tree. 
For example, suppose k <- floor(n*cell*span)
where n is the number of observations. 
Then a cell is further divided if the number of observations within it 
is greater than or equal to k. | 
| iterations | if the family argument of loess is "symmetric", the number of iterations of 
the robust fitting method. | 
 
Details
This function can be used to create a list that is given as the 
value of the argument 
control of the function 
loess. 
Most users need not specify 
control 
because its defaults provide satisfactory performance 
in most cases. 
-  Changing the method of evaluating surface  
to direct can increase the computational burden 
slightly for small data sets and by a substantial 
amount for large data sets. 
-  Changing the method 
of computing statistics to exact can cause 
a catastrophic computation time, except perhaps 
in supercomputer environments. 
The arguments of 
loess.control can 
be specified directly in a call to 
loess for a temporary 
change in the computational methods. However, you can 
achieve a lasting change by rewriting 
loess.control with new defaults. 
Value
returns a list with the following components: 
| surface | the value of the argument surface. | 
| statistics | the value of the argument statistics. | 
| trace.hat | the value of the argument trace.hat. | 
| cell | the value of the argument cell. | 
| iterations | the value of the argument iterations. | 
See Also
Examples
loess(ozone ~ radiation, Sdatasets::air, span = 1/2, drop.square = "C", 
      parametric = "C", control = loess.control(surface = "direct")) 
# The following has the same result: 
loess(ozone ~ radiation, Sdatasets::air, span = 1/2, drop.square = "C", 
      parametric = "C", surface = "direct")