I hope this modified example will work set.seed(100) disease<-paste(rep(c('y','n'),50)) gender<-c(paste(rep(c('m','f'),25)), paste(rep(c('f','m'),25))) mcp<-rnorm(100, mean=1000,sd=600) age<-rnorm(100,mean=32,sd=20)
dat<-data.frame(disease=disease,sex=gender,Dr_age=age,MCP=mcp) the output should be very closely in age for equal number of disease and gender. disease sex Dr_age MCP 99 y f 25.87435 -534.4172 93 y f 65.60017 1741.8817 47 y m 46.15360 407.0412 19 y m 26.24546 910.1833 24 n f 66.53540 1343.3980 30 n f 47.21835 888.0062 78 n m 42.75345 1605.1334 82 n m 27.05292 1671.9386 > -- View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/matching-by-gender-and-age-tp3552825p3561009.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.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.