R help - Apr 2008 - missing value with sign observed

Hi, 

I have (x, y) data as the follows (saved in the txt file):

x y 
1 8
2 5 
3 3 
4 + 
5 -1 
6 + 

When I read this txt file into R and attach this data, I found the output of y
is as the follows
[1] 8  5  3  +  -1 + 
Levels: -1 + 3 5 8

Could I get rid of Levels in the output? Because I need to use the observed y
and x run regression first and then assign the value to the missing y later.

Thanks,


Kate 
	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

kate <yhsu6 <at> uiuc.edu> writes:

[snip]
> 
> When I read this txt file into R and attach this data, I found the output
of y
is as the follows  
> [1] 8  5  3  +  -1 + 
> Levels: -1 + 3 5 8
> 
> Could I get rid of Levels in the output? Because I need to use the observed
y
and x run regression first and then
> assign the value to the missing y later.
> 
  You probably want to use the argument na.strings="+" in your
input command (scan or read.table) -- R is interpreting the
existence of a non-numeric value in your input as evidence
that you want that variable to be a factor (a categorical,
non-numeric variable).

  Ben Bolker