% Generated by roxygen2: do not edit by hand
% Please edit documentation in R/operators.R
\name{prod.network}
\alias{prod.network}
\title{Combine Networks by Edge Value Multiplication}
\usage{
\method{prod}{network}(..., attrname = NULL, na.rm = FALSE)
}
\arguments{
\item{\dots}{one or more \code{network} objects.}

\item{attrname}{the name of an edge attribute to use when assessing edge
values, if desired.}

\item{na.rm}{logical; should edges with missing data be ignored?}
}
\value{
A \code{\link{network}} object.
}
\description{
Given a series of networks, \code{prod.network} attempts to form a new
network by multiplication of edges.  If a non-null \code{attrname} is given,
the corresponding edge attribute is used to determine and store edge values.
}
\details{
The network product method attempts to combine its arguments by edgewise
multiplication (\emph{not} composition) of their respective adjacency
matrices; thus, this method is only applicable for networks whose adjacency
coercion is well-behaved.  Multiplication is effectively boolean unless
\code{attrname} is specified, in which case this is used to assess edge
values -- net values of 0 will result in removal of the underlying edge.

Other network attributes in the return value are carried over from the first
element in the list, so some persistence is possible (unlike the
multiplication operator).  Note that it is sometimes possible to
\dQuote{multiply} networks and raw adjacency matrices using this routine (if
all dimensions are correct), but more exotic combinations may result in
regrettably exciting behavior.
}
\examples{

#Create some networks
g<-network.initialize(5)
h<-network.initialize(5)
i<-network.initialize(5)
g[1:3,,names.eval="marsupial",add.edges=TRUE]<-1
h[1:2,,names.eval="marsupial",add.edges=TRUE]<-2
i[1,,names.eval="marsupial",add.edges=TRUE]<-3

#Combine by addition
pouch<-prod(g,h,i,attrname="marsupial")
pouch[,]                                   #Edge values in the pouch?
as.sociomatrix(pouch,attrname="marsupial")     #Recover the marsupial

}
\references{
Butts, C. T.  (2008).  \dQuote{network: a Package for Managing
Relational Data in R.} \emph{Journal of Statistical Software}, 24(2).
\doi{10.18637/jss.v024.i02}
}
\seealso{
\code{\link{network.operators}}
}
\author{
Carter T. Butts \email{buttsc@uci.edu}
}
\keyword{arith}
\keyword{graphs}
