search for: nabisco

I often use merge with dataframes that contain character vectors which have elements that are sometimes "NA" (meaning the string NA, not the same thing, obviously, as NA in a numeric or factor vector). For example, the stock ticker for Nabisco was "NA". Unfortunately (for me), it seems like merge insists on inserting "NA" for missing values. My question: Is there some way around this? Here is a simple example: > version _ platform sparc-sun-solaris2.6 arch sparc os...

...might be > another case where <NA> would be better). This is merely a statement about is.na(), namely that it flags the string "NA". There is no distinction in R between the "NA" that arises from subsetting with a missing value, and the "NA" that represents Nabisco. Note: R> all.equal(LETTERS[c(NA,2)][1], substring("NABISCO",1,2)) [1] TRUE R thinks I am missing data when I trade Nabisco, in the Netherlands/Antilles, or through trader Neil Armstrong. In each case, "" would more likely indicate a missing value; there is no stock wi...

...there is a discussion following page 200 that *seems* to suggest that the usage of a string class may make it easier to deal with this issue. Is there anything coming down the pike on this point? Greg suggested: Perhaps the simplest thing would be to change occurences of "NA" (meaning Nabisco) to something similar like "NA." before placing the variable in a dataframe.... > a <- data.frame(x = 1:4) > y <- c("NA","a","b") > y[y=="NA"] <- "NA." > b <- data.frame(x = 1:3, y = y) > merge(a, b, all.x = TRU...

...A","B"). This is TERRIBLE! I have a ton of S-Plus code that looks like: y$ticker <- z$ticker[match(y$cusip, z$cusip)] and I count on a ticker of "" to indicate failed lookups. Not only will I need to change all that code, but I'll never be able to trade Nabisco (ticker NA) again. PLEASE re-consider this choice, or at least make it an option: option(na.char=""). 2) system() has no "input" argument in R. Here's a (Unix) example: S> system("cd mydir; latex myfile", input="x") which goes to the...

...ot;,"B"). This is TERRIBLE! I have a ton of S-Plus code that looks like: y$ticker <- z$ticker[match(y$cusip, z$cusip)] and I count on a ticker of "" to indicate failed lookups. Not only will I need to change all that code, but I'll never be able to trade Nabisco (ticker NA) again. PLEASE re-consider this choice, or at least make it an option: option(na.char=""). 2) system() has no "input" argument in R. Here's a (Unix) example: S> system("cd mydir; latex myfile", input="x") which goes...

...TINACIONAL ELMA CHIPS sac@elma-chips.com.br 0800 703 4444 Batata Ruffles Salgadinhos Cheetos, Agito, etc. Todos os produtos da Elma Chips s=E3o produzidos com transg=EAnicos. --------------------------------------------------------------------- N=C3O COMPRE PRODUTOS DA MULTINACIONAL KRAFT FOODS sac@nabisco.com.br DDG 0800 704 1940=20 Chocolates Lacta: transg=EAnicos BISCOITO CLUB SOCIAL: transg=EAnico Biscoito Trakinas: transg=EAnico Produtos Royal: fermentos, gelatinas e pudins produzidos com transg=EAnicos Clight: gelatinas e sucos Nabisco: biscoitos e salgadinhos, todos os tipos cont=E9m transg=EA...

I understand that NA's in character vectors are displayed differently than NA's in factor vectors. > c("x", NA, "y") [1] "x" NA "y" > as.factor(c("x", NA, "y")) [1] x <NA> y Levels: x y That seems sensible enough. But shouldn't I see the same behavior in a dataframe? > test <- data.frame(a =

...A","B"). This is TERRIBLE! I have a ton of S-Plus code that looks like: y$ticker <- z$ticker[match(y$cusip, z$cusip)] and I count on a ticker of "" to indicate failed lookups. Not only will I need to change all that code, but I'll never be able to trade Nabisco (ticker NA) again. PLEASE re-consider this choice, or at least make it an option: option(na.char=""). 2) system() has no "input" argument in R. Here's a (Unix) example: S> system("cd mydir; latex myfile", input="x") which goes to the...

...A","B"). This is TERRIBLE! I have a ton of S-Plus code that looks like: y$ticker <- z$ticker[match(y$cusip, z$cusip)] and I count on a ticker of "" to indicate failed lookups. Not only will I need to change all that code, but I'll never be able to trade Nabisco (ticker NA) again. PLEASE re-consider this choice, or at least make it an option: option(na.char=""). 2) system() has no "input" argument in R. Here's a (Unix) example: S> system("cd mydir; latex myfile", input="x") which goes to the...