R help - Jan 2014 - bug in rle?

Is the following a bug?
##(R version 3.0.2 (2013-09-25)
## Platform: i386-w64-mingw32/i386 (32-bit))


d <- data.frame(a=rep(letters[1:3],4:6))
 rle(d$a)
##Error in rle(d$a) : 'x' must be an atomic vector

is.atomic(d$a)
##[1] TRUE

rle(c(d$a))
## Run Length Encoding
##  lengths: int [1:3] 4 5 6
 ##  values : int [1:3] 1 2 3

Cheers,
Bert

Bert Gunter
Genentech Nonclinical Biostatistics
(650) 467-7374

"Data is not information. Information is not knowledge. And knowledge
is certainly not wisdom."
H. Gilbert Welch

On 08/01/2014 16:23, Bert Gunter wrote:
> Is the following a bug?
> ##(R version 3.0.2 (2013-09-25)
> ## Platform: i386-w64-mingw32/i386 (32-bit))
>
>
> d <- data.frame(a=rep(letters[1:3],4:6))
>   rle(d$a)
> ##Error in rle(d$a) : 'x' must be an atomic vector
>
> is.atomic(d$a)
> ##[1] TRUE
But

 > is.vector(d$a)
[1] FALSE

The discrepancies in what a 'vector' is in R are very long standing, but
a factor is not a vector.

> rle(c(d$a))
That loses the class and other attributes, giving a vector.
> ## Run Length Encoding
> ##  lengths: int [1:3] 4 5 6
>   ##  values : int [1:3] 1 2 3
>
> Cheers,
> Bert
>
> Bert Gunter
> Genentech Nonclinical Biostatistics
> (650) 467-7374

-- 
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