When we are performing data analysis, there are times when we wish to determine whether items are alike or not alike and how many of these like items or unalike items we have in our data. When considering such circumstances, we often have data for things that have multiple attributes expressed in multiple columns. Sometimes it is important which values are in which attributes (columns) and sometimes this is not the case.
One can think of this in terms of combinations versus permutations. With combinations, order does not matter. With permutations, order does matter.
This recipe demonstrates how to determine how many distinct things we have in our data, based upon values in multiple attribute columns. This recipe provides calculations where the order (the values in specific columns) matters (permutation) and where it does not matter (combination...
