On Sunday 03 August 2008 01:54:43 pm Andrew Ramsey wrote: > Hello-- > > I am a relatively new user to R and I cannot find the information I > need. Please help. > > I have a very large data set with values including letters, numbers, > and symbols (sometimes within the same vector value [ie X9-]. > > I've imported the data using read.fwp and it arrives in list format. > > I'd like to change the letters and symbols to numbers (ie X9- -> > 00911) in every entry. > > How would you recommend I try to do so? > > Thank you! > Andrew,
Your information is a little sparse, which limits how helpful list members can be. What is the purpose to recoding the values? By "read.fwp" did you mean "read.fwf" as in fixed-wdith format? Looking at your "before" and "after" example, the leading zeros in the "after" example value would seem to mean the value is STILL an alphanumeric string rather than a "number" per se. It might order more neatly in a printout than common ascii, but it is really no different and should still be a list. As a rule, I would recommend handling tasks related to data coding in a dbms such as PostgreSQL or Access. It is afterall what they are for. John ______________________________________________ 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.
