Thaler,Thorn,LAUSANNE,Applied Mathematics
2012-Oct-31 09:46 UTC
[R] aggregate.formula: formula from string
Dear all,
I want to use aggregate.formula to conveniently summarize a data.frame. I have
quiet some variables in the data.frame and thus I don't want to write all
these names by hand, but instead create them on the fly. This approach has the
advantage that if there will be even more columns in the data.frame I don't
have to change the code.
I've hence tried to construct a formula object and to pass that to
aggregate:
d <- expand.grid(a = factor(1:3), b = factor(LETTERS[1:2]))
d <- rbind(d,d,d)
d$y <- rnorm(18)
d$z <- rnorm(18)
mF <- as.formula(paste("cbind(", paste(names(d)[-(1:2)], collapse =
","), ") ~ a + b", sep = ""))
But if I try to pass that formula to aggregate
aggregate(mF, d, mean)
I get the following error:
Error in m[[2L]][[2L]] : object of type 'symbol' is not subsettable
But if I pass the formula directly:
aggregate(cbind(y, z) ~ a + b, d, mean)
Everything is working as expected.
So I was wondering what went wrong? I know I could use a formula like . ~ a + b
instead and this would work fine, but I'm just interested in why the
outlined approach does not work as expected, and where my mistake lies? (that
means in particular I am not asking for a solution of how to get the thing done
- there are plenty of alternatives - but instead to understand why this very
approach does not work)
Thanks for your help!
Kind Regards,
Thorn Thaler
Mathematician
Applied Mathematics
Nestec Ltd,
Nestl? Research Center
PO Box 44
CH-1000 Lausanne 26
Phone: +41 21 785 8220
Fax: +41 21 785 9486
Hi,
Try this:
res<- aggregate(eval(mF),d,mean)
res
#? a b????????? NA????????? NA
#1 1 A -1.48354978 -0.37141485
#2 2 A -0.08862713? 0.35359250
#3 3 A? 1.17519518 -0.47595290
#4 1 B? 0.10214686 -0.70005131
#5 2 B? 0.41185154? 0.03707291
#6 3 B? 0.20507062 -0.67946389
res1<-aggregate(cbind(y, z) ~ a + b, d, mean)
colnames(res)[3:4]<-colnames(res1)[3:4]
?identical(res,res1)
#[1] TRUE
A.K.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thaler,Thorn,LAUSANNE,Applied Mathematics" <Thorn.Thaler at
rdls.nestle.com>
To: "r-help at r-project.org" <r-help at r-project.org>
Cc:
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2012 5:46 AM
Subject: [R] aggregate.formula: formula from string
Dear all,
I want to use aggregate.formula to conveniently summarize a data.frame. I have
quiet some variables in the data.frame and thus I don't want to write all
these names by hand, but instead create them on the fly. This approach has the
advantage that if there will be even more columns in the data.frame I don't
have to change the code.
I've hence tried to construct a formula object and to pass that to
aggregate:
d <- expand.grid(a = factor(1:3), b = factor(LETTERS[1:2]))
d <- rbind(d,d,d)
d$y <- rnorm(18)
d$z <- rnorm(18)
mF <- as.formula(paste("cbind(", paste(names(d)[-(1:2)], collapse =
","), ") ~ a + b", sep = ""))
But if I try to pass that formula to aggregate
aggregate(mF, d, mean)
I get the following error:
Error in m[[2L]][[2L]] : object of type 'symbol' is not subsettable
But if I pass the formula directly:
aggregate(cbind(y, z) ~ a + b, d, mean)
Everything is working as expected.
So I was wondering what went wrong? I know I could use a formula like . ~ a + b
instead and this would work fine, but I'm just interested in why the
outlined approach does not work as expected, and where my mistake lies? (that
means in particular I am not asking for a solution of how to get the thing done
- there are plenty of alternatives - but instead to understand why this very
approach does not work)
Thanks for your help!
Kind Regards,
Thorn Thaler
Mathematician
Applied Mathematics
Nestec Ltd,
Nestl? Research Center
PO Box 44
CH-1000 Lausanne 26
Phone: +41 21 785 8220
Fax: +41 21 785 9486
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