[R] thousand separator (was RE: weight)

[Marc Schwartz]

Bert,

What am I missing?

> print(as.numeric(gsub(",", "", "1,123,456.789")), 10)
[1] 1123456.789


FWIW, this is using:

R version 2.5.0 Patched (2007-04-27 r41355)

Marc

On Mon, 2007-04-30 at 10:13 -0700, Bert Gunter wrote:
> Except this doesn't work for "1,123,456.789" Marc.
> 
> I hesitate to suggest it, but gregexpr() will do it, as it captures the
> position of **every** match to ",". This could be then used to process the
> vector via some sort of loop/apply statement.
> 
> But I think there **must** be a more elegant way using regular expressions
> alone, so I, too, await a clever reply.
> 
> -- Bert 
> 
> 
> Bert Gunter
> Genentech Nonclinical Statistics
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of Marc Schwartz
> Sent: Monday, April 30, 2007 10:02 AM
> To: Liaw, Andy
> Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: Re: [R] thousand separator (was RE: weight)
> 
> One possibility would be to use something like the following
> post-import:
> 
> > WTPP
> [1] 1,106.8250 1,336.5138
> 
> > str(WTPP)
>  Factor w/ 2 levels "1,106.8250","1,336.5138": 1 2
> 
> > as.numeric(gsub(",", "", WTPP))
> [1] 1106.825 1336.514
> 
> 
> Essentially strip the ',' characters from the factors and then coerce
> the resultant character vector to numeric. 
> 
> HTH,
> 
> Marc Schwartz
> 
> 
> On Mon, 2007-04-30 at 12:26 -0400, Liaw, Andy wrote:
> > I've run into this occasionally.  My current solution is simply to read
> > it into Excel, re-format the offending column(s) by unchecking the
> > "thousand separator" box, and write it back out.  Not exactly ideal to
> > say the least.  If anyone can provide a better solution in R, I'm all
> > ears...
> > 
> > Andy 
> > 
> > From: Natalie O'Toole
> > > 
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > These are the variables in my file. I think the variable i'm having 
> > > problems with is WTPP which is of the Factor type. Does 
> > > anyone know how to 
> > > fix this, please?
> > > 
> > > Thanks,
> > > 
> > > Nat
> > > 
> > > data.frame':   290 obs. of  5 variables:
> > >  $ PROV  : num  48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 48 ...
> > >  $ REGION: num  4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 ...
> > >  $ GRADE : num  7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 ...
> > >  $ Y_Q10A: num  1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 1.1 ...
> > >  $ WTPP  : Factor w/ 1884 levels 
> > > "1,106.8250","1,336.5138",..: 1544 67 
> > > 1568 40 221 1702 1702 1434 310 310 ...
> > > 
> > > 
> > > __________________
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > --- Douglas Bates <bates at stat.wisc.edu> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > On 4/28/07, John Kane <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca> wrote:
> > > > > IIRC you have a yes/no smoking variable scored 1/2
> > > > ?
> > > > >
> > > > > It is possibly being read in as a factor not as an
> > > > > integer.
> > > > >
> > > > > try
> > > > >  class(df$smoking.variable)
> > > > > to see .
> > > > 
> > > > Good point.  In general I would recommend using
> > > > 
> > > > str(df)
> > > > 
> > > > to check on the class or storage type of all
> > > > variables in a data frame
> > > > if you are getting unexpected results when
> > > > manipulating it.  That
> > > > function is carefully written to provide a maximum
> > > > of information in a
> > > > minimum of space.
> > > 
> > > Yes but I'm an relative newbie at R and didn't realise
> > > that str() would do that.  I always thought it was
> > > some kind of string function. 
> > > 
> > > Thanks, it makes life much easier.
> > > 
> > > > >
> > > > > --- Natalie O'Toole <notoole at mtroyal.ca> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > > Hi,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I'm getting an error message:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Error in df[, 1:4] * df[, 5] : non-numeric
> > > > argument
> > > > > > to binary operator
> > > > > > In addition: Warning message:
> > > > > > Incompatible methods ("Ops.data.frame",
> > > > > > "Ops.factor") for "*"
> > > > > >
> > > > > > here is my code:
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ##reading in the file
> > > > > > happyguys<-read.table("c:/test4.dat",
> > > > header=TRUE,
> > > > > > row.names=1)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ##subset the file based on Select If
> > > > > >
> > > > > > test<-subset(happyguys, PROV==48 & GRADE == 7  &
> > > > > > Y_Q10A < 9)
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ##sorting the file
> > > > > >
> > > > > > mydata<-test
> > > > > > mydataSorted<-mydata[ order(mydata$Y_Q10A), ]
> > > > > > print(mydataSorted)
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ##assigning  a different name to file
> > > > > >
> > > > > > happyguys<-mydataSorted
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ##trying to weight my data
> > > > > >
> > > > > > data.frame<-happyguys
> > > > > > df<-data.frame
> > > > > > df1<-df[, 1:4] * df[, 5]
> > > > > >
> > > > > > ##getting error message here??
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Error in df[, 1:4] * df[, 5] : non-numeric
> > > > argument
> > > > > > to binary operator
> > > > > > In addition: Warning message:
> > > > > > Incompatible methods ("Ops.data.frame",
> > > > > > "Ops.factor") for "*"
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Does anyone know what this error message means?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I've been reviewing R code all day & getting
> > > > more
> > > > > > familiar with it
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Thanks,
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Nat
> > > > > >
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.