[R] Adding SORT to UNIQUE

[Duncan Murdoch]

On 22/12/2021 10:20 a.m., Stephen H. Dawson, DSL wrote:
> Thanks for the reply.
> 
> Both syntax options work to render the correct (unique) output. However,
> the output is rendered as horizontal. What needs to happen to get the
> output to render vertical, please?

The result of those expressions is a vector of the same type as the 
column, so your question is really about how to get a vector to print 
one element per line.

Probably the simplest way is to put the vector in a dataframe (or 
matrix, or tibble, depending on which formatting you prefer).  For example,

 >   v <- c("red", "green", "blue")
 >   data.frame(v)
       v
1   red
2 green
3  blue

If you want a more minimal display, try

 > cat(v, sep = "\n")
red
green
blue

or

 > cat(format(v, justify = "right"), sep = "\n")
   red
green
  blue

If you want this to happen when you auto-print the object, you can give 
it a class attribute and write a function to print that class, e.g.

 >  class(v) <- "oneperline"
 >
 >   print.oneperline <- function(x, ...) cat(format(x, justify = 
"right"), sep = "\n")
 >
 >   v
   red
green
  blue

Duncan Murdoch

> 
> 
> *Stephen Dawson, DSL*
> /Executive Strategy Consultant/
> Business & Technology
> +1 (865) 804-3454
> http://www.shdawson.com <http://www.shdawson.com>
> 
> 
> On 12/21/21 11:38 AM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>> On 21/12/2021 11:31 a.m., Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>>> On 21/12/2021 11:20 a.m., Stephen H. Dawson, DSL wrote:
>>>> Thanks for the reply.
>>>>
>>>> sort(unique(Data[1]))
>>>> Error in `[.data.frame`(x, order(x, na.last = na.last, decreasing =
>>>> decreasing)) :
>>>>       undefined columns selected
>>>
>>> That's the wrong syntax:  Data[1] is not "column one of Data". Use
>>> Data[[1]] for that, so
>>>
>>>      sort(unique(Data[[1]]))
>>
>> Actually, I'd probably recommend
>>
>>    sort(unique(Data[, 1]))
>>
>> instead.  This treats Data as a matrix rather than as a list.
>> Dataframes are lists that look like matrices, but to me the matrix
>> aspect is usually more intuitive.
>>
>> Duncan Murdoch
>>
>>>
>>> I think Rui already pointed out the typo in the quoted text below...
>>>
>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>
>>>>
>>>> The recommended syntax did not work, as listed above.
>>>>
>>>> What I want is the sort of distinct column output. Again, the column
>>>> may
>>>> be text or numbers. This is a huge analysis effort with data coming at
>>>> me from many different sources.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> *Stephen Dawson, DSL*
>>>> /Executive Strategy Consultant/
>>>> Business & Technology
>>>> +1 (865) 804-3454
>>>> http://www.shdawson.com <http://www.shdawson.com>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 12/21/21 11:07 AM, Duncan Murdoch wrote:
>>>>> On 21/12/2021 10:16 a.m., Stephen H. Dawson, DSL via R-help wrote:
>>>>>> Thanks everyone for the replies.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It is clear one either needs to write a function or put the unique
>>>>>> entries into another dataframe.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> It seems odd R cannot sort a list of unique column entries with ease.
>>>>>> Python and SQL can do it with ease.
>>>>>
>>>>> I've seen several responses that looked pretty simple.  It's hard to
>>>>> beat sort(unique(x)), though there's a fair bit of confusion about
>>>>> what you actually want.  Maybe you should post an example of the code
>>>>> you'd use in Python?
>>>>>
>>>>> Duncan Murdoch
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> QUESTION
>>>>>> Is there a simpler means than other than the unique function to
>>>>>> capture
>>>>>> distinct column entries, then sort that list?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *Stephen Dawson, DSL*
>>>>>> /Executive Strategy Consultant/
>>>>>> Business & Technology
>>>>>> +1 (865) 804-3454
>>>>>> http://www.shdawson.com <http://www.shdawson.com>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 12/20/21 5:53 PM, Rui Barradas wrote:
>>>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Inline.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Às 21:18 de 20/12/21, Stephen H. Dawson, DSL via R-help escreveu:
>>>>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> sort(unique(Data[[1]]))
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> This syntax provides row numbers, not column values.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> This is not right.
>>>>>>> The syntax Data[1] extracts a sub-data.frame, the syntax Data[[1]]
>>>>>>> extracts the column vector.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> As for my previous answer, it was not addressing the question, I
>>>>>>> misinterpreted it as being a question on how to sort by numeric
>>>>>>> order
>>>>>>> when the data is not numeric. Here is a, hopefully, complete answer.
>>>>>>> Still with package stringr.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> cols_to_sort <- 1:4
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Data2 <- lapply(Data[cols_to_sort], \(x){
>>>>>>>       stringr::str_sort(unique(x), numeric = TRUE)
>>>>>>> })
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Or using Avi's suggestion of writing a function to do all the
>>>>>>> work and
>>>>>>> simplify the lapply loop later,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> unisort2 <- function(vec, ...) stringr::str_sort(unique(vec), ...)
>>>>>>> Data2 <- lapply(Data[cols_to_sort], unisort, numeric = TRUE)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hope this helps,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Rui Barradas
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> *Stephen Dawson, DSL*
>>>>>>>> /Executive Strategy Consultant/
>>>>>>>> Business & Technology
>>>>>>>> +1 (865) 804-3454
>>>>>>>> http://www.shdawson.com <http://www.shdawson.com>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 12/20/21 11:58 AM, Stephen H. Dawson, DSL via R-help wrote:
>>>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Running a simple syntax set to review entries in dataframe
>>>>>>>>> columns.
>>>>>>>>> Here is the working code.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Data <- read.csv("./input/Source.csv", header=T)
>>>>>>>>> describe(Data)
>>>>>>>>> summary(Data)
>>>>>>>>> unique(Data[1])
>>>>>>>>> unique(Data[2])
>>>>>>>>> unique(Data[3])
>>>>>>>>> unique(Data[4])
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> I would like to add sort the unique entries. The data in the
>>>>>>>>> various
>>>>>>>>> columns are not defined as numbers, but also text. I realize 1 and
>>>>>>>>> 10 will not sort properly, as the column is not defined as a
>>>>>>>>> number,
>>>>>>>>> but want to see what I have in the columns viewed as sorted.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> QUESTION
>>>>>>>>> What is the best process to sort unique output, please?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Thanks.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>>>>> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>>>>>>>> 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.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> ______________________________________________
>>>>>> R-help using r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
>>>>>> 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.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>