\name{plotSampleRelation}
\alias{plotSampleRelation}
%- Also NEED an '\alias' for EACH other topic documented here.
\title{ visualize the sample relations }
\description{
  plot the sample relations based on MDS or hierarchical clustering
}
\usage{
plotSampleRelation(x, subset = NULL, cv.Th = 0.1, standardize = TRUE, method = c("cluster", "mds"), dimension = c(1, 2), color = NULL, main = NULL, ...)
}
%- maybe also 'usage' for other objects documented here.
\arguments{
  \item{x}{a LumiBatch object, ExpressionSet object or a matrix with each column corresponding to a sample}
  \item{subset}{ the subset probes used to determine the sample relations. If it is one number, then randomly selected "number" of probes will be used. If not provide, all the probes will be used. }
  \item{cv.Th}{ the threshold of the coefficient of variance of probes used to select probes to estimate sample relations }
  \item{standardize}{ standardize the expression profiles or not }
  \item{method}{ "MDS" or "hierarchical clustering" }
  \item{dimension}{ the principle components to visualize the MDS plot }
  \item{color}{ the color for each sample during plot. Only support the "mds" method }
  \item{main}{ the title of the plot }
  \item{\dots}{ Other parameters used by plot function. }
}
\details{
  Estimate the sample relations based on selected probes (based on large coefficient of variance (mean / standard variance)). Two methods can be used: MDS (Multi-Dimensional Scaling) or hierarchical clustering methods.
}
\value{
Invisibly return the hierarchical clustering results (if 'cluster' method used) or coordinates of the mds plot (if 'mds' method used) .
}

\author{ Pan Du }

\seealso{  \code{\link{lumiQ}}, \code{\link{LumiBatch}}, , \code{\link{plot,ExpressionSet-method}} }
\examples{

## load example data
data(example.lumi)

## plot the sample relations with MDS
## the color of sample is automatically set based on the sample type
plotSampleRelation(example.lumi, col=c('100US', '95US:5P', '100US', '95US:5P'))

## plot the sample relations with hierarchical clustering
plotSampleRelation(example.lumi, method='cluster')

}
\keyword{ hplot }