robust-mixed-dist 0.1.5

Compute statistical robust distances for mixed data.

robust_mixed_dist

Data scientists address real-world problems using multivariate and heterogeneous datasets, characterized by multiple variables of different natures. Selecting a suitable distance function between units is crucial, as many statistical techniques and machine learning algorithms depend on this concept. Traditional distances, such as Euclidean or Manhattan, are unsuitable for mixed-type data, and although Gower distance was designed to handle this kind of data, it may lead to suboptimal results in the presence of outlying units or underlying correlation structure.

In the paper Grané, A., Scielzo-Ortiz, F.: On generalized Gower distance for mixed-type data: extensive simulation study and new software tools. Submitted to SORT (2025) robust distances for mixed-type data are defined and explored, namely robust generalized Gower and robust related metric scaling. In addition, the new Python package robust-mixed-dist is developed, which enables to compute these robust proposals as well as classical ones.

The package is located in Python Package Index (PyPI), the standard repository of packages for the Python programming language: https://pypi.org/project/robust_mixed_dist/