[R] Warning: as.numeric reorders factor data

[Bud Gibson]

Well, it seems my hard won workaround was documented after all. 
 Wouldn't it be nice if this were in the as.numeric help page?  Look, I 
haven't slacked off.  I have the Ripley and Venables book (in fact, all 
4 editions over the years) and the Dalgaard book.

I did look at on-line resources.  However, exactly how was I to find 
this in the FAQ?  The category is "Miscellanea" which is hardly 
informative.  It's not cross-indexed.  There is no search engine.

Is it that much effort to get it in the standard distributed help files? 
 From the FAQ entry, this sounds pretty common.

ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk wrote:

>On Sun, 8 Dec 2002, Bud Gibson wrote:
>
>  
>
>>Thanks for the clarification.  It's nice to know that there is some
>>systematicity to the behavior.
>>
>>Is this documented anywhere?  I did look at the help for as.numeric, and
>>    
>>
>
>Yes, in the FAQ no less, Q7.12 in the version I have:
>
>   ``In any case, do not call `as.numeric()' or their likes directly.''
>
>
>Ouch....
>
>  
>