Ok, it seems that the function to get generic field names is get() res=names(dat); get(res[ind],pos=dat) will retrieve dat$name -- View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Change-case-of-factor-in-data-frame-tp4651696p4651919.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.