Dear R list,
I'm having difficulties in choosing between a list or a data.frame,
or an array for the storage and manipulation of my data (example
follows). I've been using the three for different purposes but I
would rather like to know which is more adapted to what task.
Here is the data I'm currently working on: 200 observations, each
observation being a vector of length 1000 depending on several
factors ("polarisation", "pitch", "dose", "size")
> x <- seq(1,100,length = 1000)
> observations <- matrix( rnorm(200*1000), ncol = 200)
>
> # factors
> polarisation <- rep(c("0","90"), each = 100, length = 200)
> pitch <- rep(1:5, length = 200)
> dose <- rep(1:2, each =100, length = 200)
> size <- rep(letters[1:6], each =100, length = 200)
>
> my.data <- list(x = x,
> observations = as.data.frame(observations),
> polarisation = factor(polarisation),
> pitch = factor(pitch),
> dose = factor(dose),
> size = factor(size))
I would like to be able to manipulate the data in "observations"
using the factors as opposed to column indices. For instance, I could
plot all the observations corresponding to polarisation == "90" and
pitch == "1", like in,
> with(my.data , matplot(x, subset((pitch == "1") & (polarisation ==
> "90"), observations, type="l" )))
which doesn't work, so I've had to use,
> with(my.data , matplot(x, observations[,(pitch == "1") &
> (polarisation == "90")], type="l" ))
Is this a sensible way to store and manipulate this sort of data? Is
there anything more appropriate I've overlooked using data.frames only?
Many thanks,
baptiste
_____________________________
Baptiste Auguié
Physics Department
University of Exeter
Stocker Road,
Exeter, Devon,
EX4 4QL, UK
Phone: +44 1392 264187
http://newton.ex.ac.uk/research/emag
http://projects.ex.ac.uk/atto
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