The MDS Procedure

The OUT= data set contains the following variables:

• BY variables, if any

• _ITER_ (if the OUTITER option is specified), a numeric variable containing the iteration number

• _DIMENS_, a numeric variable containing the number of dimensions

• _MATRIX_ or the variable in the MATRIX statement, identifying the data matrix or subject to which the observation pertains. This variable contains a missing value for observations that pertain to the data set as a whole and not to a particular matrix, such as the coordinates (_TYPE_=‘CONFIG’).

• _TYPE_, a character variable of length 10 identifying the type of information in the observation

  The values of _TYPE_ are as follows:

  CONFIG

  the estimated coordinates of the configuration of objects

  DIAGCOEF

  the estimated dimension coefficients for COEF=DIAGONAL

  INTERCEPT

  the estimated intercept parameters

  SLOPE

  the estimated slope parameters

  POWER

  the estimated power parameters

  CRITERION

  the badness-of-fit criterion

• _LABEL_ or the variable in the ID statement, containing the variable label or value of the ID variable of the object to which the observation pertains. This variable contains a missing value for observations that do not pertain to a particular object or dimension.

• _NAME_, a character variable containing the variable name of the object or dimension to which the observation pertains. This variable contains a missing value for observations that do not pertain to a particular object or dimension.

• Dim1, ..., Dimm, where m is the maximum number of dimensions