[R] function to include factors in summary data frame

[Petr PIKAL]

> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I have a dataframe that includes data on individuals that are 
distributed
> across multiple rows.  I have aggregated the data using ddply, but I 
have
> columns in the original data frame that are factors ( such as sites "A",
> "B", and "C") that I would like to include in the new data frame.  I 
have
> done this in a clunky way using match() and a loop, but am wondering if
> there is a more elegant approach.  Here is an example data set.
> 
> #Example
> a<-c(rep(1:5,6)); b<-sort(b)
> b<-c(rep("A",10),rep("B",10),rep("C",10))
> a<-c(rep(1:5,6)); b<-sort(b)
> d<-c(2008,2008,2009,2009,2010,2010);d<-rep(d,5)
> e<-rnorm(30,2,1)
> df<-data.frame(a,b,d,e) ; names(df)<-c("ind","site","year","height")

Do you want something like this?

with(df, aggregate(height, list(ind=ind, year=year, site=site), mean))

or
ddply(df, .(ind,year,site), summarise, mean(height))

Regards
Petr



> 
> I created a new factor using ind and year, and would basically like to
> include site in the new dataframe. Does anyone know how this could 
easily be
> done?
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
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> 
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