netcompare function

Comparing and testing network objects

Compare or test network objects for (near) equality.

netcompare(target, current, test = FALSE, ...)

Arguments

• target, current: network objects, currently network and igraph classes are supported
• test: logical, whether to perform the test or return comparison data, see Details
• ...: other arguments, currently ignored

Returns

Depending on the value of test either an object of class netcompare containing the results of all the tests (if test=FALSE) or (if test=TRUE) a logical whether or not the networks are (nearly) the same.

Details

Arguments target and current can be network objects of one of the supported classes. They do not have to be of the same class though.

The function does a series of comparisons between target and current:

1. The network structure comparison is made based on adjacency matrices (mind this when using for huge networks).
2. Network/edge/vertex attributes are checked for presence in both objects.
3. Common network/edge/vertex attribures are checked for equality.

All the results are collected in a list of class netcompare with an associated print method.

If test is TRUE then instead of the detailed test results the function returns TRUE or FALSE depending on some of the checks resulted positively. Currently attribute checks are ignored, i.e. what is taken into account is:

1. Equivalence of adjacency matrices
2. Directed / undirected character of the network
3. Edge set size
4. Vertex set size

Examples

netcompare( asIgraph(exNetwork), exNetwork)
netcompare( asIgraph(exNetwork), exNetwork, test=TRUE)

See Also

all.equal, identical