Serializing the Data Matrix

Command:

Edit -> Serialize Data Matrix

At times it is required to rearrange a particular data matrix in a way so that the individual columns of a matrix are concatenated to form a vector (or a 1*n matrix). Starting with a matrix of p columns and n rows the serialization results in a matrix having 1 column and n*p rows. In order to preserve the information contained in the variable identifiers (= column headers) and the row/column indices DataLab creates four columns when serializing the data matrix. The first column contains the variable identifiers as a nominal variable, the second and the third column contain the column and row indices, and the fourth receives the actual data:

The command Edit/Serialize Data Matrix performs the serialization after asking for confirmation. Please note that the serialization of larger matrices may take some time. All the additional information of the data matrix such as the cell states or the row attributes will be copied into the serialized matrix. The memory requirements of the serialized matrix are approx. four times the requirements of the original data (due to the additional columns containing the variable identifiers and indices).

Hint:

If the original data contain variables of different levels of measurement the data column of the serialized matrix will be set to the highest encountered level of measurement. Nominal values will be replaced by their ordinals.