R help - Oct 2004 - Create factors in R for more than one variable

Hi all,
 
I'm using R2.0 on linux. 
I have fixedwidth data consisting of 50 questions on a likert scale. The raw
data is coded 1 to 5. I used read.fwf() to read in the data.
The problem is that factors isn't created automatically, because the data is
coded numerically.
To make factors out of the 50 questions I must do:
V1 <- factor(V1)
I don't want to do it 50 times. Is there a quicker way without using loops?
 
Thanks
Hennie 
 
 

Hennie Gerber
Statistician
UNISA - Research Support
+ 27 12 429 3188
Waarskuwing!
Die sienings uitgespreek is my eie en nie noodwendig my werkgewer sin nie
Warning!
All views expressed are my own and not necessarily that of my employer.
 
 
 
 


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On Thu, 28 Oct 2004, H J Gerber wrote:
> Hi all,
>  
> I'm using R2.0 on linux. 
As there is no such version, unlikely.
> I have fixedwidth data consisting of 50 questions on a likert scale. The
raw data is coded 1 to 5. I used read.fwf() to read in the data.
> The problem is that factors isn't created automatically, because the
data is coded numerically.
> To make factors out of the 50 questions I must do:
> V1 <- factor(V1)
> I don't want to do it 50 times. Is there a quicker way without using
loops?
Not really (and a loop will a matter of seconds at most), but there are 
neater ways such as

DF[] <- lapply(DF as.factor)

which will convert it for you.  Or you could get read.fwf() to do so: see
the colClasses argument to read.table, as mentioned on its help page.

-- 
Brian D. Ripley,                  ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk
Professor of Applied Statistics,  http://www.stats.ox.ac.uk/~ripley/
University of Oxford,             Tel:  +44 1865 272861 (self)
1 South Parks Road,                     +44 1865 272866 (PA)
Oxford OX1 3TG, UK                Fax:  +44 1865 272595

Thanks Prof Ripley,
 
The statement:
 
DF[] <- lapply(DF, as.factor)
 
works perfectly and saves a lot of time!
 
Regards 
Hennie


 
>As there is no such version, unlikely.
> Not really (and a loop will a matter of seconds at most), but there are 
> neater ways such as
>DF[] <- lapply(DF as.factor)
>which will convert it for you.  Or you could get read.fwf() to do so: see
>the colClasses argument to read.table, as mentioned on its help page.



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