[R] factor always have type integer

[Liaw, Andy]

?data.frame says:

Details:

     A data frame is a list of variables of the same length with unique
     row names, given class '"data.frame"'.

     'data.frame' converts each of its arguments to a data frame by
     calling 'as.data.frame(optional=TRUE)'.  As that is a generic
     function, methods can be written to change the behaviour of
     arguments according to their classes: R comes with many such
     methods. Character variables passed to 'data.frame' are converted
     to factor columns unless protected by 'I'.  ...

(Note that last sentence.)  I believe that answers your question.

Best,
Andy  

> From: Erich Neuwirth
> 
> typeof applied to a factor always seems to return "integer",
> independently of the type of the levels.
> This has a strange side effect.
> When a variable is "imported" into a data frame,
> its type changes.
> character variables automatically are converted
> to factors when imported into data frames.
> 
> Here is an example:
> 
>  > v1<-1:3
>  > v2<-c("a","b","c")
>  > df<-data.frame(v1,v2)
>  > typeof(v2)
> [1] "character"
>  > typeof(df$v2)
> [1] "integer"
> 
> It is somewhat surprising that
> the types of v2 and df$v2 are different.
> 
> the answer is to do
> levels(df$v2)[df$v2]
> but that is somewhat involved.
> 
> Should the types not be identical, and typeof applied to factors
> return the type of the levels?
> 
> 
> -- 
> Erich Neuwirth, Computer Supported Didactics Working Group
> Visit our SunSITE at http://sunsite.univie.ac.at
> Phone: +43-1-4277-38624 Fax: +43-1-4277-9386
> 
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