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Hi I'm quite confused about Partitioning Around Medoids.

Firstly, When the centre objects are swapped, how many objects are supposed to be swapped? For example, if there are 4 medoids, then do all of them need to be changed? or just one? or does it depend on analyst?

Secondly, there were 4 medoids A,B,C,D and D is swapped with E. However, what if A,B,D,E were best objects in forming clusters? I know once object is replaced, the object never come back. Or should I take this thing as a drawback of PAM?

Thank you so much!!!!! Have a amazing day :)

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  • $\begingroup$ Or, does every pairs of medoids and non-medoids are considered? Like When I considered to swap D with E, I need to considered to swap A with E, B with E, C with E as well?? $\endgroup$
    – Hongyul
    Aug 13, 2018 at 11:50

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The best single swap is executed.

Then, a new best swap is found - this may involve an earlier medoid (it's just not likely to happen - in your example, this would mean the first swap was not optimal).

When there is no swap that further improves the result. PAM finishes.

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