Compute the Density of a Network

network.density computes the density of its argument.

Usage

network.density(x, na.omit = TRUE, discount.bipartite = FALSE, ...)

# S3 method for class 'network'
network.density(x, na.omit = TRUE, discount.bipartite = FALSE, ...)

Arguments

x: an object of class network
na.omit: logical; omit missing edges from extant edges when assessing density?
discount.bipartite: logical; if x is bipartite, should “forbidden” edges be excluded from the count of potential edges?
...: additional arguments to methods

Value

The network density.

Details

The density of a network is defined as the ratio of extant edges to potential edges. We do not currently consider edge values; missing edges are omitted from extent (but not potential) edge count when na.omit==TRUE.

Warning

network.density relies on network attributes (see network.indicators) to determine the properties of the underlying network object. If these are set incorrectly (e.g., multiple edges in a non-multiplex network, network coded with directed edges but set to “undirected”, etc.), surprising results may ensue.

References

Butts, C. T. (2008). “network: a Package for Managing Relational Data in R.” Journal of Statistical Software, 24(2). doi:10.18637/jss.v024.i02

Wasserman, S. and Faust, K. (1994). Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author

Carter T. Butts buttsc@uci.edu

Examples


#Create an arbitrary adjacency matrix
m<-matrix(rbinom(25,1,0.5),5,5)
diag(m)<-0

g<-network.initialize(5)    #Initialize the network
network.density(g)          #Calculate the density
#> [1] 0