mplus.update: Mplus Input Updating

Description

This function updates specific input command sections of a misty.object of type mplus to create an updated Mplus input file, run the updated input file by using the mplus.run() function, and print the updated Mplus output file by using the mplus.print() function.

Usage

mplus.update(x, update, file = "Mplus_Input_Update.inp",
             replace.inp = TRUE, mplus.run = TRUE,
             show.out = FALSE, replace.out = c("always", "never", "modified"),
             print = c("all", "input", "result"),
             input = c("all", "default", "data", "variable", "define",
                       "analysis", "model", "montecarlo", "mod.pop", "mod.cov",
                       "mod.miss", "message"),
             result = c("all", "default", "summary.analysis.short",
                        "summary.data.short", "random.starts", "summary.fit",
                        "mod.est", "fit", "class.count", "classif",
                        "mod.result", "total.indirect"),
             exclude = NULL, variable = FALSE, not.input = TRUE, not.result = TRUE,
             write = NULL, append = TRUE, check = TRUE, output = TRUE)

Value

Returns an object of class misty.object, which is a list with following entries:

call: function call
type: type of analysis
x: a character vector containing the Mplus input text
args: specification of function arguments
input: list with input command sections
write: write command sections
result: list with input command sections (input) and result sections (input)

Arguments

x: misty.object object of type mplus.
update: a character vector containing the updated input command sections.
file: a character string indicating the name of the updated Mplus input file with or without the file extension .inp, e.g., "Mplus_Input_Update.inp" or "Mplus_Input_Update".
replace.inp: logical: if TRUE (default), an existing input file will be replaced.
mplus.run: logical: if TRUE, the input file specified in the argument file containing the input text specified in the argument x is run using the mplus.run function.
show.out: logical: if TRUE, estimation output (TECH8) is show on the R console. Note that if run within Rgui, output will display within R, but if run via Rterm, a separate window will appear during estimation.
replace.out: a character string for specifying three settings: "always" (default), which runs all models, regardless of whether an output file for the model exists, "never", which does not run any model that has an existing output file, and "modified", which only runs a model if the modified date for the input file is more recent than the output file modified date.
print: a character vector indicating which results to show, i.e. "all" (default) for all results "input" for input command sections, and "result" for result sections.
input: a character vector specifiying Mplus input command sections included in the output (see 'Details' in the mplus.print function).
result: a character vector specifiying Mplus result sections included in the output (see 'Details' in the mplus.print function).
exclude: a character vector specifiying Mplus input command or result sections excluded from the output (see 'Details' in the mplus.print function).
variable: logical: if TRUE, names of the variables in the data set (NAMES ARE) specified in the VARIABLE: command section are shown. By default, names of the variables in the data set are excluded from the output unless all variables are used in the analysis (i.e., no USEVARIABLES command specified in the Mplus input file).
not.input: logical: if TRUE (default), character vector indicating the input commands not requested are shown on the console.
not.result: logical: if TRUE (default), character vector indicating the result sections not requested are shown on the console.
write: a character string naming a file for writing the output into a text file with file extension ".txt" (e.g., "Output.txt").
append: logical: if TRUE (default), output will be appended to an existing text file with extension .txt specified in write, if FALSE existing text file will be overwritten.
check: logical: if TRUE (default), argument specification is checked.
output: logical: if TRUE (default), output is shown on the console by using the function mplus.print.

Author

Takuya Yanagida

Details

The ... Specification

The ... Specification can be used to update specific options in the VARIABLE and ANALYSIS section, while keeping all other options in the misty.object of type mplus specified in the argument x. Note that the ... specification is only available for the VARIABLE and ANALYSIS section.

The ---; Specification

can be used to remove entire sections (e.g., OUTPUT: ---;) or options within the VARIABLE: and ANALYSIS: section (e.g., ANALYSIS: ESTIMATOR IS ---;) from the Mplus input.

Comments in the Mplus Input

Comments in the Mplus Input can cause problems when following keywords in uppercase, lower case, or mixed upper and lower case letters are involved in the comments of the VARIABLE and ANALYSIS section:

VARIABLE section: "NAMES", "USEOBSERVATIONS", "USEVARIABLES", "MISSING", "CENSORED", "CATEGORICAL", "NOMINAL", "COUNT", "DSURVIVAL", "GROUPING", "IDVARIABLE", "FREQWEIGHT", "TSCORES", "AUXILIARY", "CONSTRAINT", "PATTERN", "STRATIFICATION", "CLUSTER", "WEIGHT", "WTSCALE", "BWEIGHT", "B2WEIGHT", "B3WEIGHT", "BWTSCALE", "REPWEIGHTS", "SUBPOPULATION", "FINITE", "CLASSES", "KNOWNCLASS", "TRAINING", "WITHIN", "BETWEEN", "SURVIVAL", "TIMECENSORED", "LAGGED", or "TINTERVAL".
ANALYSIS section: "TYPE", "ESTIMATOR", "MODEL", "ALIGNMENT", "DISTRIBUTION", "PARAMETERIZATION", "LINK", "ROTATION", "ROWSTANDARDIZATION", "PARALLEL", "REPSE", "BASEHAZARD", "CHOLESKY", "ALGORITHM", "INTEGRATION", "MCSEED", "ADAPTIVE", "INFORMATION", "BOOTSTRAP", "LRTBOOTSTRAP", "STARTS", "STITERATIONS", "STCONVERGENCE", "STSCALE", "STSEED", "OPTSEED", "K-1STARTS", "LRTSTARTS", "RSTARTS", "ASTARTS", "H1STARTS", "DIFFTEST", "MULTIPLIER", "COVERAGE", "ADDFREQUENCY", "ITERATIONS", "SDITERATIONS", "H1ITERATIONS", "MITERATIONS", "MCITERATIONS", "MUITERATIONS", "RITERATIONS", "AITERATIONS", "CONVERGENCE", "H1CONVERGENCE", "LOGCRITERION", "RLOGCRITERION", "MCONVERGENCE", "MCCONVERGENCE", "MUCONVERGENCE", "RCONVERGENCE", "ACONVERGENCE", "MIXC", "MIXU", "LOGHIGH", "LOGLOW", "UCELLSIZE", "VARIANCE", "SIMPLICITY", "TOLERANCE", "METRIC", "MATRIX", "POINT", "CHAINS", "BSEED", "STVALUES", "PREDICTOR", "ALGORITHM", "BCONVERGENCE", "BITERATIONS", "FBITERATIONS", "THIN", "MDITERATIONS", "KOLMOGOROV", "PRIOR", "INTERACTIVE", or "PROCESSORS".

Note that it is recommended to remove all comments in the VARIABLE and VARIABLE section when the function crashes.

References

Muthen, L. K., & Muthen, B. O. (1998-2017). Mplus User's Guide (8th ed.). Muthen & Muthen.