Thank you all for the useful replies. I will go with the list of matrices idea as suggested multiple times.
On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 6:50 PM, Jeff Newmiller <jdnew...@dcn.davis.ca.us> wrote: > A data frame is a list of vectors all with the same length. Note that vectors > have simple types. Sticking other types of objects into it violates the > generic constraint stated above, leading to incompatibility with many > functions that normally work with data frames. > > If you want to maintain data frame semantics for your original data, > possibilities I see right off. > > 1) Make a list with two elements... the first being the original data frame, > and the second being a list of matrices of the same length as the nrows of > the data frame, maintaining index correspondence. > > 2) Represent the list of matrices as a single data frame, with one column > that identifies the row in the original data frame for each row of the > mortality matrix. This is a more relational (as in SQL) solution. > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Jeff Newmiller The ..... ..... Go Live... > DCN:<jdnew...@dcn.davis.ca.us> Basics: ##.#. ##.#. Live Go... > Live: OO#.. Dead: OO#.. Playing > Research Engineer (Solar/Batteries O.O#. #.O#. with > /Software/Embedded Controllers) .OO#. .OO#. rocks...1k > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Sent from my phone. Please excuse my brevity. > > > > > > > > Onur Uncu <onuru...@gmail.com> wrote: > >>Thank you. But isn't a data frame already a list? What is wrong with >>adding a column to the existing data frame (a column with the >>mortality curve matrices)? >> >>Sorry if I am being difficult. Just want to learn good design in R. >> >> >>On Sat, Jun 16, 2012 at 5:49 PM, steven mosher <mosherste...@gmail.com> >>wrote: >>> use a list. or create new class which is a list >>> >>> On Jun 16, 2012 8:52 AM, "Onur Uncu" <onuru...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>> Hello R Community, >>>> >>>> I have the following design question. I have a data set that looks >>>> like this (shortened for the sake of example). >>>> >>>> Gender Age >>>> M 70 >>>> F 65 >>>> M 70 >>>> >>>> Each row represents a person with an age/gender combination. We >>could >>>> put this data into a data frame. >>>> >>>> Now, I would like to do some actuarial analysis on this data set. To >>>> do so, I need to create and store a mortality curve for each person >>in >>>> the table (a mortality curve is a matrix with 2 columns: date and >>>> survival probability). I can write a function that returns a >>mortality >>>> curve given gender and age. The question is the following: In what >>>> data format should I store all these mortality curve objects? Should >>I >>>> add a column to the data frame and each entry in that column is a >>>> matrix (a mortality curve)? This way, the mortality curve would be >>>> stored next to age/gender data in the data frame. However, I read in >>>> several places that putting vectors/matrices as elements of a data >>>> frame is a bad idea. I do not know why. What is a good design choice >>>> in this instance please? How should I store the mortality curves? >>>> >>>> Thank you for your help. >>>> >>>> ______________________________________________ >>>> 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. >> >>______________________________________________ >>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. > ______________________________________________ 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.
