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I have a dataset on which on MATLAB/StatisticsToolbox I used linkage, (method=ward), to obtain a separation through hierarchical clustering.

I want to separate those results such that the number of clusters is the one corresponding to the maximum lifetime. Is there a way to do this without having to observe each dendrogram (I have hundreds of datasets to apply this method, so this approach would be very time consuming)?

Thanks in advance

NoDataDumpNoContribution
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Pedro Álvaro Chagas
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  • Just out of interest: what is the lifetime and maybe the output of `linkage` is already pre-sorted in a way? – NoDataDumpNoContribution May 27 '14 at 08:16
  • I'm not sure if I understood your question (do you want to know what cluster lifetime means or what is it's value?). Linkage is sorted by nodes similarity – Pedro Álvaro Chagas May 27 '14 at 10:37
  • Meaning of cluster lifetime. I was just reading through the documentation of linkage and could not find any information on cluster lifetime. – NoDataDumpNoContribution May 27 '14 at 10:40
  • LifeTime of a cluster is the difference between distance at its creation (that is, the time when two clusters were merged to form the present cluster) and its termination (that is, the time where the cluster was merged with another cluster). – Pedro Álvaro Chagas May 27 '14 at 11:32

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