predict.lm {stats}R Documentation

Predict method for Linear Model Fits

Description

Predicted values based on linear model object.

Usage

## S3 method for class 'lm':
predict(object, newdata, se.fit = FALSE, scale = NULL, df = Inf, 
        interval = c("none", "confidence", "prediction"),
        level = 0.95, type = c("response", "terms"),
        terms = NULL, na.action = na.pass, pred.var = res.var/weights,
        weights = 1, ...)

Arguments

object Object of class inheriting from "lm"
newdata An optional data frame in which to look for variables with which to predict. If omitted, the fitted values are used.
se.fit A switch indicating if standard errors are required.
scale Scale parameter for std.err. calculation
df Degrees of freedom for scale
interval Type of interval calculation.
level Tolerance/confidence level
type Type of prediction (response or model term).
terms If type="terms", which terms (default is all terms)
na.action function determining what should be done with missing values in newdata. The default is to predict NA.
pred.var the variance(s) for future observations to be assumed for prediction intervals. See Details.
weights variance weights for prediction. This can be a numeric vector or a one-sided model formula. In the latter case, it is interpreted as an expression evaluated in newdata
... further arguments passed to or from other methods.

Details

predict.lm produces predicted values, obtained by evaluating the regression function in the frame newdata (which defaults to model.frame(object). If the logical se.fit is TRUE, standard errors of the predictions are calculated. If the numeric argument scale is set (with optional df), it is used as the residual standard deviation in the computation of the standard errors, otherwise this is extracted from the model fit. Setting intervals specifies computation of confidence or prediction (tolerance) intervals at the specified level, sometimes referred to as narrow vs. wide intervals.

If the fit is rank-deficient, some of the columns of the design matrix will have been dropped. Prediction from such a fit only makes sense if newdata is contained in the same subspace as the original data. That cannot be checked accurately, so a warning is issued.

If newdata is omitted the predictions are based on the data used for the fit. In that case how cases with missing values in the original fit is determined by the na.action argument of that fit. If na.action = na.omit omitted cases will not appear in the residuals, whereas if na.action = na.exclude they will appear (in predictions, standard errors or interval limits), with residual value NA. See also napredict.

The prediction intervals are for a single observation at each case in newdata (or by default, the data used for the fit) with error variance(s) pred.var. This can be a multiple of res.var, the estimated value of sigma^2: the default is to assume that future observations have the same error variance as those used for fitting. If weights is supplied, the inverse of this is used as a scale factor. For a weighted fit, if the prediction is for the original data frame, weights defaults to the weights used for the model fit, with a warning since it might not be the intended result. If the fit was weighted and newdata is given, the default is to assume constant prediction variance, with a warning.

Value

predict.lm produces a vector of predictions or a matrix of predictions and bounds with column names fit, lwr, and upr if interval is set. If se.fit is TRUE, a list with the following components is returned:

fit vector or matrix as above
se.fit standard error of predicted means
residual.scale residual standard deviations
df degrees of freedom for residual

Note

Variables are first looked for in newdata and then searched for in the usual way (which will include the environment of the formula used in the fit). A warning will be given if the variables found are not of the same length as those in newdata if it was supplied.

Offsets specified by offset in the fit by lm will not be included in predictions, whereas those specified by an offset term in the formula will be.

Notice that prediction variances and prediction intervals always refer to future observations, possibly corresponding to the same predictors as used for the fit. The variance of the residuals will be smaller.

Strictly speaking, the formula used for prediction limits assumes that the degrees of freedom for the fit are the same as those for the residual variance. This may not be the case if res.var is not obtained from the fit.

See Also

The model fitting function lm, predict, SafePrediction

Examples

## Predictions
x <- rnorm(15)
y <- x + rnorm(15)
predict(lm(y ~ x))
new <- data.frame(x = seq(-3, 3, 0.5))
predict(lm(y ~ x), new, se.fit = TRUE)
pred.w.plim <- predict(lm(y ~ x), new, interval="prediction")
pred.w.clim <- predict(lm(y ~ x), new, interval="confidence")
matplot(new$x,cbind(pred.w.clim, pred.w.plim[,-1]),
        lty=c(1,2,2,3,3), type="l", ylab="predicted y")

## Prediction intervals, special cases
##  The first three of these throw warnings
w <- 1 + x^2
fit <- lm(y ~ x)
wfit <- lm(y ~ x, weights = w)
predict(fit, interval = "prediction")
predict(wfit, interval = "prediction")
predict(wfit, new, interval = "prediction")
predict(wfit, new, interval = "prediction", weights = (new$x)^2)
predict(wfit, new, interval = "prediction", weights = ~x^2)

[Package stats version 2.5.0 Index]