[R] Character coerced to factor and I cannot get it back

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Just one caveat.  I personally would try to avoid using
global options since it can cause conflicts when
two different programs assume two different settings
of the same global option and need to interact.

On 4/20/07, John Kane <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca> wrote:
> Thanks Stephen and Gabor.
>
> It works like a charm both ways.  It took me a minute
> or two to find the global command but  I definately
> like it :)  Now to remember to change it on the USB
> installation too.
>
> Any idea what the rationale was for setting the option
> to TRUE?  I can see advantages either way but
> personally I like to set my factors myself and for a
> newbie it is disconcerting to see my characters refuse
> to stay that way.
>
> --- Stephen Tucker <brown_emu at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > You can also set this option globally with
> > options(stringsAsFactors = TRUE)
> >
> > I believe this was added in R 2.4.0.
> >
>
> > --- Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Try this:
> > >
> > > DF <- data.frame(let = letters[1:3], num = 1:3,
> > stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
> > > str(DF)
> > >
> > >
> > > On 4/19/07, John Kane <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > --- Tyler Smith <tyler.smith at mail.mcgill.ca>
> > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > I really need to sit down with the manual and
> > sort
> > > > > factors and classes
> > > > > properly. In your case, I think the problem
> > has
> > > > > something to do with
> > > > > the way a list behaves?  I'm not sure, but if
> > you
> > > > > convert your list to
> > > > > a dataframe it seems to work ok:
> > > > >
> > > > > > dd3 <- as.data.frame(dd1)
> > > > > > typeof(dd3$st)
> > > > > [1] "integer"
> > > > > > class(dd3$st)
> > > > > [1] "factor"
> > > > > > dd3$st <- as.character(dd3$st)
> > > > > > typeof(dd3$st)
> > > > > [1] "character"
> > > > > > class(dd3$st)
> > > > > [1] "character"
> > > > >
> > > > > HTH,
> > > > >
> > > > > Tyler
> > > >
> > > > Seems to work nicely. I had forgotten about
> > > > 'as.data.frame.
> > > >
> > > > I originally thought that it might be a list
> > problem
> > > > too but I don't think so. I set up the example
> > as a
> > > > list since that is the way my real data is being
> > > > imported from csv. However after my original
> > posting I
> > > > went back and tried it with just a dataframe and
> > I'm
> > > > getting the same results. See below.
> > > >
> > > > I even shut down R , reloaded it and detached
> > the two
> > > > extra packages I usually load. Everything is
> > working
> > > > fine but I am doing some things with factors
> > that I
> > > > have never done before and this just makes me a
> > bit
> > > > paranoid.
> > > >
> > > > Thanks very much for the help.
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > EXAMPLE
> > > > dd  <- data.frame(aa <- 1:4, bb <-
> > letters[1:4],
> > > >         cc <- c(12345, 123456, 45678, 456789))
> > > >
> > > > id  <-  as.character(dd[,3]) ; id
> > > >
> > > > st  <- substring(id, 1,nchar(id)-4 ) ; st
> > > > typeof (st)  ; class(st)
> > > >
> > > > dd1  <-  cbind(dd, st)
> > > >    names(dd1)  <- c("aa","bb","cc","st")
> > > >    dd1
> > > >    typeof(dd1$st); class(dd1$st)
> > > >
> > > > dd2  <-  cbind(dd, as.character(st))
> > > >    names(dd2)  <- c("aa","bb","cc","st")
> > > >    dd2
> > > >    typeof(dd2$st) ;   class(dd2$st)
> > > >
> > > > ______________________________________________
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> > > > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained,
> > reproducible code.
> > > >
> > >
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> > reproducible code.
> > >
> >
> >
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>
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>