R help - Jul 2008 - by() function doesn't work inside another function

I have a longitudinal data set in long format and I want to run
individual regressions.  I do this by using the by() function as
follows:

 

temp <- by(tolerance.pp, tolerance.pp$id, function(x)
summary(lm(tolerance ~ time, data=x)))

 

This works fine.  Coefficients for the first two subjects are shown
below.

 

Coefficients:

            Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)   

(Intercept)   1.9020     0.2519   7.549  0.00482 **

time          0.1190     0.1029   1.157  0.33105   

 

Coefficients:

            Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)   

(Intercept)  1.14400    0.13336   8.578  0.00333 **

time         0.17400    0.05444   3.196  0.04948 *

 

 

Each subject has five rows of data, measured at periods 0,1,2,3,4. There
are 16 subjects so 80 total rows and the output is 16 regression models.

 

However, if I put this inside another function, the by() function no
longer generates regressions by subject id.  It does generate 16 models;
but each model is identical which is a regression using all 80 rows at
once.  The function and coefficients for the first two models are shown
below.

 

 

test <- function(X,x,y,id)

{

temp <- by(X, id, function(z) summary(lm(y~x,data=z)))

temp

}

 

attach(tolerance.pp)

test(tolerance.pp, time, tolerance, id)
> 
Coefficients:

            Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)    

(Intercept)  1.35775    0.08952  15.167  < 2e-16 ***

x            0.13081    0.03655   3.579 0.000596 ***

 

Coefficients:

            Estimate Std. Error t value Pr(>|t|)    

(Intercept)  1.35775    0.08952  15.167  < 2e-16 ***

x            0.13081    0.03655   3.579 0.000596 ***

 

 

Without attaching the data I've even tried

 

test(tolerance.pp, tolerance.pp$time, tolerance.pp$tolerance,
tolerance.pp$id)

 

but get the same results.  Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

 

 

Russell Ivory

Merrick Bank

South Jordan, UT

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