Hi, Try: iris1<-data.frame(iris,annot=c(""),stringsAsFactors=FALSE) str(iris1) #'data.frame': 150 obs. of 6 variables: # $ Sepal.Length: num 5.1 4.9 4.7 4.6 5 5.4 4.6 5 4.4 4.9 ... # $ Sepal.Width : num 3.5 3 3.2 3.1 3.6 3.9 3.4 3.4 2.9 3.1 ... # $ Petal.Length: num 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.5 1.4 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.5 ... # $ Petal.Width : num 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 ... # $ Species : Factor w/ 3 levels "setosa","versicolor",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ... # $ annot : chr "" "" "" "" ... iris1[1,"annot"]<-"annotation" head(iris1,3) # Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species annot #1 5.1 3.5 1.4 0.2 setosa annotation #2 4.9 3.0 1.4 0.2 setosa #3 4.7 3.2 1.3 0.2 setosa
A.K. ----- Original Message ----- From: Ed Siefker <ebs15...@gmail.com> To: r-help@r-project.org Cc: Sent: Wednesday, August 28, 2013 4:56 PM Subject: [R] why is this a factor? I have a table, and I want a new column to add some annotations to. But it ends up as a factor instead of characters, and won't let me add arbitrary text. > data(iris) > iris<-data.frame(iris,annot=c("")) > iris[1,"annot"]<-"annotation" Warning message: In `[<-.factor`(`*tmp*`, iseq, value = "annotation") : invalid factor level, NAs generated > class(iris[,"annot"]) [1] "factor" > class(c("")) [1] "character" Why is c("") a character, but when I add it to a data frame it's a factor? What am I missing? Is there a better way to add a new column to a data frame? ______________________________________________ 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.