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Maas James Dr (MED)

2011-Mar-14 09:29 UTC

[R] creating character vector

Is there a way to convince R to create a character vector without using the
quotes?

This works

ex1 <-  c("first","second")

but when I try this it doesn't

ext <- as.character(c(first,second))

it complains. I have many variables to put into character vectors so dispensing
with the quotes would be useful.

Thanks

Jim


==============================Dr. Jim Maas
University of East Anglia


	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Jim Lemon

2011-Mar-14 09:41 UTC

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[R] creating character vector

On 03/14/2011 08:29 PM, Maas James Dr (MED) wrote:> Is there a way to convince R to create a character vector without using the
quotes?
>
> This works
>
> ex1<-  c("first","second")
>
> but when I try this it doesn't
>
> ext<- as.character(c(first,second))
>
> it complains. I have many variables to put into character vectors so
dispensing with the quotes would be useful.
>Hi Jim,
If you are reading values in from a file, you can get character vectors 
like this:

<contents of file "charvec.txt">
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

charvec<-unlist(read.table("charvec.txt",stringsAsFactors=FALSE))
is.character(charvec)

Jim

Wolfgang RAFFELSBERGER

2011-Mar-14 09:43 UTC

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[R] RE : creating character vector

Jim,

I don't know if this is the most elegant solution :

Copy the following to your clipboard (some editors will require also to take
last paragraph mark)
first
second
third
> ## now go to R and use
> dat <- read.table("clipboard")  # will give data.frame
> dat      V1
1  first
2 second
3  third> ## or if you want a character-vector
> dat <- as.character(as.matrix(read.table("clipboard")))
> dat[1] "first"  "second" "third" 



. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wolfgang Raffelsberger, PhD
IGBMC,
1 rue Laurent Fries,  67404 Illkirch  Strasbourg,  France
Tel (+33) 388 65 3300         Fax (+33) 388 65 3276
wolfgang.raffelsberger at igbmc.fr

________________________________________
De : r-help-bounces at r-project.org [r-help-bounces at r-project.org] de la
part de Maas James Dr (MED) [J.Maas at uea.ac.uk]
Date d'envoi : lundi 14 mars 2011 10:29
? : r-help at r-project.org
Objet : [R] creating character vector

Is there a way to convince R to create a character vector without using the
quotes?

This works

ex1 <-  c("first","second")

but when I try this it doesn't

ext <- as.character(c(first,second))

it complains. I have many variables to put into character vectors so dispensing
with the quotes would be useful.

Thanks

Jim


==============================Dr. Jim Maas
University of East Anglia


        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]

______________________________________________
R-help at 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.

Allan Engelhardt

2011-Mar-14 15:32 UTC

head link

[R] creating character vector

You could try

scan(what=character(0), sep=",",
file=textConnection("first,second,third"))


but better to put the strings in a file (say, strings.txt), one per 
line, and read it using

scan("strings.txt", what=character(0), sep="\n")


Even better is to understand what you are really trying to do and we can 
maybe help with that.

Hope this helps a little


Allan
---
http://www.cybaea.net/Blogs/Data/


On 14/03/11 09:29, Maas James Dr (MED) wrote:> Is there a way to convince R to create a character vector without using the
quotes?
>
> This works
>
> ex1<-  c("first","second")
>
> but when I try this it doesn't
>
> ext<- as.character(c(first,second))
>
> it complains. I have many variables to put into character vectors so
dispensing with the quotes would be useful.
>
> Thanks
>
> Jim
>
>
> ==============================> Dr. Jim Maas
> University of East Anglia
>
>
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at 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.

nblarson

2011-Mar-14 15:50 UTC

head link

[R] creating character vector

The reason this doesn't work is because R thinks that in the command
as.character(c(first,second)) that first  and second are variables that
exist within the working environment.  Since they don't (I assume), R
doesn't know what to do with the command.  Using the quotes indicates to R
that you're specifying a character string type, instead of calling a
variable.

As other have said before, if you don't want to type in quotes, you could
just read in a text file in the methods they describe.

--
View this message in context:
http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/creating-character-vector-tp3353447p3354199.html
Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

Eik Vettorazzi

2011-Mar-14 18:07 UTC

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[R] creating character vector

Hi Jim

create  <-function(...) paste(substitute(list(...)))[-1]

create(a,b,c)

should work.

hth.

Am 14.03.2011 10:29, schrieb Maas James Dr (MED):> Is there a way to convince R to create a character vector without using the
quotes?
> 
> This works
> 
> ex1 <-  c("first","second")
> 
> but when I try this it doesn't
> 
> ext <- as.character(c(first,second))
> 
> it complains. I have many variables to put into character vectors so
dispensing with the quotes would be useful.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Jim
> 
> 
> ==============================> Dr. Jim Maas
> University of East Anglia
> 
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at 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.
-- 
Eik Vettorazzi
Institut f?r Medizinische Biometrie und Epidemiologie
Universit?tsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf

Martinistr. 52
20246 Hamburg

T ++49/40/7410-58243
F ++49/40/7410-57790

Eik Vettorazzi

2011-Mar-14 19:12 UTC

head link

[R] creating character vector

Hi Jim,
this may be barking up the wrong tree, but

create  <-function(...) paste(substitute(list(...)))[-1]
createl  <-function(...) {
 tmp<-list(...)
 names(tmp)<-create(...)
 tmp
}

#eg
a<-1:4
b<-letters[2:6]
createl(a,b)

works. But I can't imagine that a named list is the one and only useful
data type for your problem.

Am 14.03.2011 19:36, schrieb Maas James Dr (MED):> Nice simple elegant solution .... care to have a crack at this one ...!! 
> 
> Thanks for help and answer!
> 
> Jim
> 
> In a parallel routine using foreach and doMPI have to put calculated values
into a list of lists such as
> 
> list(one=one,
>      two=two,
>      three=three)
> 
> It uses the same (large) list of variable names as in the previous
question.  Is there a simpler way to accomplish this with a lapply statement?
> 
> 
> I've tried several permutations but no luck!
> 
> 
> ==============================> Dr. Jim Maas
> University of East Anglia
> 
> From: Eik Vettorazzi [E.Vettorazzi at uke.uni-hamburg.de]
> Sent: 14 March 2011 18:07
> To: Maas James Dr (MED)
> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: Re: [R] creating character vector
> 
> Hi Jim
> 
> create  <-function(...) paste(substitute(list(...)))[-1]
> 
> create(a,b,c)
> 
> should work.
> 
> hth.
> 
> Am 14.03.2011 10:29, schrieb Maas James Dr (MED):
>> Is there a way to convince R to create a character vector without using
the quotes?
>>
>> This works
>>
>> ex1 <-  c("first","second")
>>
>> but when I try this it doesn't
>>
>> ext <- as.character(c(first,second))
>>
>> it complains. I have many variables to put into character vectors so
dispensing with the quotes would be useful.
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Jim
>>
>>
>> ==============================>> Dr. Jim Maas
>> University of East Anglia
>>
>>
>>       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>
>> ______________________________________________
>> R-help at 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.
> 
> --
> Eik Vettorazzi
> Institut f?r Medizinische Biometrie und Epidemiologie
> Universit?tsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf
> 
> Martinistr. 52
> 20246 Hamburg
> 
> T ++49/40/7410-58243
> F ++49/40/7410-57790
-- 
Eik Vettorazzi

Department of Medical Biometry and Epidemiology
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf

Martinistr. 52
20246 Hamburg

T ++49/40/7410-58243
F ++49/40/7410-57790

peter dalgaard

2011-Mar-14 20:37 UTC

head link

[R] creating character vector

On Mar 14, 2011, at 16:32 , Allan Engelhardt wrote:
> You could try
> 
> scan(what=character(0), sep=",",
file=textConnection("first,second,third"))
> 
> 
> but better to put the strings in a file (say, strings.txt), one per line,
and read it using
> 
> scan("strings.txt", what=character(0), sep="\n")
Also, things like this come in handy at times:

## From dept. of slightly dirty trix:
txt <- "fmffmfmfmfmfmmmmfmmmffmff"
lizards$sex <-
factor(unlist(strsplit(txt,"")),levels=c("m","f"))

It is easily generalized to include a delimiter.

-- 
Peter Dalgaard
Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School
Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark
Phone: (+45)38153501
Email: pd.mes at cbs.dk  Priv: PDalgd at gmail.com

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