[R] Neat way of using R for pivoting?

[BANNISTER, Keith]

Hi,

I'd like to use R to do what excel pivot tables do, and plot results.

I've never used R before, and I've managed to do something, but it's quite a
lot of code to do something simple. I can't help but think I'm not "Doing it
the R way".

I could be using R for the wrong thing, in which case, please tell me off.

I was hoping something like plot(by(t, factor(t$snr), summary)) would do
something, but it doesn't.

Say my data is (for example)
SNR	timeError
4	1.3
4	2.1
4	1.2
6	2.1
6	2.2
6	2.1
8	3.2
8	3.7
8	3.1

I want to produce a plot of SNR vs mean(timeError) with error bars of
magnitude 3 sigma.

here's what I've got so far (without the error bars. I can't do that yet).

I'm sure it's the wrong way to go about this:

******* BEGIN SNIPPET *******

get_stats <- function(t) {
cnfac <- factor(t$cnset);
mu <- as.list(by(t$snr, cnfac, mean));
tvar <- as.list(by(t$snr, cnfac, var));
t <- list(mu=mu, var=tvar);
}

vn <- read.table('vn.csv', sep=',');
vn_stats <- get_stats(vn);

vsn <- read.table('vsn.csv', sep=',');
vsn_stats <- get_stats(vsn);

snrs <- as.numeric(names(vn_stats$mu))

matplot(snrs, cbind(vn_stats$mu, vsn_stats$mu));

windows();
matplot(snrs, cbind(vn_stats$var, vsn_stats$var));

******* END SNIPPET *******

Appreciate any helpful hints from the pros.

Cheers!

p.s. We've been having rather a good time around the office recently with
"International Talk Like a Pirate Day" (www.yarr.org.uk). R fits in very
well: "I be usin' Arrrgghhhh for my post processin'".


Keith Bannister

--
Electrical Engineer
Astrium Ltd


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