The ".bin" is a binary file storing the matrix entries, which can be
- SQR
the N
x N
symmetric matrix in full
- LWD
the lower triangle with diagonal
- LND
the lower triangle without diagonal
,
saved as either single or double precision.
The ".id" is a text file of N
family ID (FID) and individual ID (IID) in
two columns. By default, IID is used as matix row and column names.
PLINK option --make-red bin
, --distance bin
, and GCTA option
--make-grm
all creats binary symmetric matrices, widely used in linear
mixed model or kernel based models for genetics.