Hi Erin, I am assuming this is for pedagogical purposes (i.e., make R less intimidating by not reading data in). If that is true, you may just want to automate the whole process. I am typically twitchy about using assign(), but fix does it and again if only for introducing students to R.....
## mostly automated, still needs assignment fact1 <- function() { dat <- data.frame() dat <- edit(dat) as.data.frame(as.list(dat)) } test2.df <- fact1() ## assigns to users' workspace too sfix <- function(x) { dat <- data.frame() dat <- edit(dat) assign(x, as.data.frame(as.list(dat)), envir = .GlobalEnv) } sfix("test3.df") Cheers, Josh On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 8:45 PM, Erin Hodgess <erinm.hodg...@gmail.com> wrote: > Here is a little function that I put together: > >> fact1 > function(x) { > n <- ncol(x) > for(i in 1:n) { > if(mode(x[,i])=="character")x[,i] <- factor(x[,i]) > } > return(x) > } >> > > It does the trick. I'm sure that there are better ways, but this seems ok. > > Thank you!!! > > Sincerely, > Erin > > > On Fri, Mar 4, 2011 at 10:42 PM, Ista Zahn <iz...@psych.rochester.edu> wrote: >> Hi Erin, >> I would set up the data.frame the way you want it before calling >> fix(). Something like >> >> test2df <- data.frame(v1=numeric(), v2=factor()) >> test2df <- fix(test2df) >> >> Best, >> Ista >> >> On Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 4:34 AM, Erin Hodgess <erinm.hodg...@gmail.com> wrote: >>> Dear R People: >>> >>> If I use the fix or edit function for a new data frame, I would like >>> to have my character data as factors. >>> >>> Is there a "built in" way to do this, please? >>> >>> Here is what I did: >>> >>>> test2.df <- data.frame() >>>> test2.df <- fix(test2.df,factor.mode="character") >>>> str(test2.df) >>> 'data.frame': 5 obs. of 2 variables: >>> $ var1: num 1 2 3 4 5 >>> $ var2: chr "a" "a" "g" "g" ... >>>> >>> The character data is simply that. I would like create factors when I >>> enter character data. >>> >>> Thank you! >>> >>> Sincerely, >>> >>> Erin >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Erin Hodgess >>> Associate Professor >>> Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences >>> University of Houston - Downtown >>> mailto: erinm.hodg...@gmail.com >>> >>> ______________________________________________ >>> R-help@r-project.org 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. >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Ista Zahn >> Graduate student >> University of Rochester >> Department of Clinical and Social Psychology >> http://yourpsyche.org >> > > > > -- > Erin Hodgess > Associate Professor > Department of Computer and Mathematical Sciences > University of Houston - Downtown > mailto: erinm.hodg...@gmail.com > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org 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. > -- Joshua Wiley Ph.D. Student, Health Psychology University of California, Los Angeles http://www.joshuawiley.com/ ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org 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.