R help - May 2010 - Merging dataframe with list

I often read SPSS system files (*.sav) into R using the 'read.spss'
function from the 'foreign' library. To retain all the meta data, i.e.
'variable labels', I call the function like this:

test.sav <-
read.spss('http://www.cdc.gov/healthyYouth/shpps/2006/spss/envs2006.sav',
 to.data.frame=FALSE, 
 use.value.labels=TRUE
)

This returns a list, which is fine. However. How do I merge data to this list,
keeping the list components intact? Let's assume I have a dataframe that
looks like this:

df <- data.frame(id=rep(1:100),data=runif(100, min=0, max=1))

I want to add the column 'df$data' to 'test.sav' by matching the
columns 'd$id' with 'test.sav$stcmsid'. If I use
'merge', the resulting class is 'data.frame', hence the variable
labels from 'test.sav' will be silently dropped.

Is there an elegant way to merge data to a list like 'test.sav', or
should I just save 'attr(test.sav, "variable.labels")' and be
done with it?

TIA

/s

Hi,

I definitely have no idea of what to do precisely, but there is 
something you should know: data.frames ARE lists but where all elements 
have the same length.
I don't know if that would change anything, but it might help you 
finding an alternative.

Ivan

Le 5/25/2010 11:24, Stefan Petersson a ?crit :
> I often read SPSS system files (*.sav) into R using the 'read.spss'
function from the 'foreign' library. To retain all the meta data, i.e.
'variable labels', I call the function like this:
>
> test.sav<-
read.spss('http://www.cdc.gov/healthyYouth/shpps/2006/spss/envs2006.sav',
>   to.data.frame=FALSE,
>   use.value.labels=TRUE
> )
>
> This returns a list, which is fine. However. How do I merge data to this
list, keeping the list components intact? Let's assume I have a dataframe
that looks like this:
>
> df<- data.frame(id=rep(1:100),data=runif(100, min=0, max=1))
>
> I want to add the column 'df$data' to 'test.sav' by
matching the columns 'd$id' with 'test.sav$stcmsid'. If I use
'merge', the resulting class is 'data.frame', hence the variable
labels from 'test.sav' will be silently dropped.
>
> Is there an elegant way to merge data to a list like 'test.sav', or
should I just save 'attr(test.sav, "variable.labels")' and be
done with it?
>
> TIA
>
> /s
>
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> PLEASE do read the posting guide
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> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>
>    
-- 
Ivan CALANDRA
PhD Student
University of Hamburg
Biozentrum Grindel und Zoologisches Museum
Abt. S?ugetiere
Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3
D-20146 Hamburg, GERMANY
+49(0)40 42838 6231
ivan.calandra at uni-hamburg.de

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