Parses an input alpha value to be used in numeric summary calculations
Details
The function first checks that there is only 1 input. If character, the
alpha is parsed and converted to a single numeric. If alpha is greater than
1, it is assumed to be on the [1,100]
scale, and will be scaled onto the
[0,1]
scale If alpha is less than 0.5, it is assumed to tbe on the [0,.5]
scale (ie. .05 instead of .95) and converted to the [.5, 1]
scale
Author
Mike K Smith mstoolkit@googlemail.com