Multidimensional Scaling (MDS)

Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) is part of:

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System configuration
- Windows:
  - Versions: 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7/Win 8
  - Excel: 97 and later
  - Processor: 32 or 64 bits
  - Hard disk: 150 Mb
- Mac OS X:
  - OS: OS X
  - Excel: X, 2004 and 2011
  - Hard disk: 150Mb.

Benefits

Easy and user-friendly
Easy and user-friendly XLSTAT is flawlessly integrated with Microsoft Excel which is the most popular spreadsheet worldwide. This integration makes it one of the simplest available tools to work with as it utilizes the same philosophy as Microsoft Excel. The program is accessible in a dedicated XLSTAT tab. The analyses are grouped into functional menus. The dialog boxes are user-friendly and setting up an analysis is straightforward.
Data and results shared seamlessly
Data and results shared seamlessly One of the greatest advantages of XLSTAT is the way you can share data and results seamlessly. As the results are stored in Microsoft Excel, anyone can access them. There is no need for the receiver to have an XLSTAT license or any additional viewer which makes your team-work easier and more affordable. In addition, results are easily integrable into other Microsoft Office software such as PowerPoint, so that you can create striking presentation in minutes.
Modular
Modular XLSTAT is a modular product. XLSTAT-Pro is a core statistical module of XLSTAT which includes all the mainstream functionalities in statistics and multivariate analysis. More advanced features contained in add-on modules can be added for specific applications. This way you can adapt the software to your needs making the software more cost-efficient.
Didactic
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Affordable
Affordable XLSTAT is a complete and modular analytical solution that can suit any analytical business needs. It is very reasonably priced so that the return of your investment is almost immediate. Any XLSTAT license comes with top level support and assistance.
Accessible - Available in many languages
Accessible - Available in many languages We have ensured XLSTAT is accessible to everyone by making the program available in many languages, including Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.
Automatable and customizable
Automatable and customizable Most of the statistical functions available in XLSTAT can be called directly from the Visual Basic window of Microsoft Excel. They can be modified and integrated to more code to fit to the specificity of your domain. Adding tables and plots as well as modifying existing outputs becomes easy. Furthermore, XLSTAT includes some special tools on the dialog boxes to generate automatically the VBA code in order to reproduce your analysis using the VBA editor or to simply load pre-set settings. This effortless automation of routine analysis will be a huge time saver on your part.

Multidimensional Scaling principle

Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) is used to go from a proximity matrix (similarity or dissimilarity) between a series of N objects to the coordinates of these same objects in a p-dimensional space. p is generally fixed at 2 or 3 so that the objects may be visualized easily.

For example, with MDS, it is possible to reconstitute the position of towns on a map very precisely from the distances in kilometers (the dissimilarity in this case being the Euclidean distance) between the towns, modulo a rotation and a symmetrical transformation. Practically, MDS is often used in psychometry (perception analysis) and marketing (distances between products obtained from consumer classifications) but there are applications in a large number of domains.

Type of Multidimensional Scaling

There are two types of MDS depending on the nature of the dissimilarity observed:

Metric MDS	Non metric MDS
Absolute MDS Ratio MDS Interval MDS Polynomial MDS	Ordinal (2 options) Raw Stress Normalized Stress Kruskal's stress (2 options)

Note: for a given number of dimensions, the weaker the stress, the better the quality of the representation. Furthermore, the higher the number of dimensions, the weaker the stress.