[R] Sort problem in merge()

[Gabor Grothendieck]

If you make the levels the same does that give what you want:

levs <- c(LETTERS[1:6], "0")
tmp1 <- data.frame(col1 = factor(c("A", "A", "C", "C", "0", "0"), levs))
tmp2 <- data.frame(col1 = factor(c("C", "D", "E", "F"), levs), col2 = 1:4)
merge(tmp2, tmp1, all = TRUE, sort = FALSE)
merge(tmp1, tmp2, all = TRUE, sort = FALSE)

On 3/6/06, Gregor Gorjanc <gregor.gorjanc at bfro.uni-lj.si> wrote:
> Hello!
>
> I am merging two datasets and I have encountered a problem with sort.
> Can someone please point me to my error. Here is the example.
>
> ## I have dataframes, first one with factor and second one with factor
> ## and integer
> > tmp1 <- data.frame(col1 = factor(c("A", "A", "C", "C", "0", "0")))
> > tmp2 <- data.frame(col1 = factor(c("C", "D", "E", "F")), col2 = 1:4)
> > tmp1
>  col1
> 1    A
> 2    A
> 3    C
> 4    C
> 5    0
> 6    0
> > tmp2
>  col1 col2
> 1    C    1
> 2    D    2
> 3    E    3
> 4    F    4
>
> ## Now merge them
> > (tmp12 <- merge(tmp1, tmp2, by.x = "col1", by.y = "col1",
>                  all.x = TRUE, sort = FALSE))
>  col1 col2
> 1    C    1
> 2    C    1
> 3    A   NA
> 4    A   NA
> 5    0   NA
> 6    0   NA
>
> ## As you can see, sort was applied, since row order is not the same as
> ## in tmp1. Reading help page for ?merge did not reveal much about
> ## sorting. However I did try to see the result of "non-default" -
> ## help page says that order should be the same as in 'y'. So above
> ## makes sense
>
> ## Now merge - but change x an y
> > (tmp21 <- merge(tmp2, tmp1, by.x = "col1", by.y = "col1",
>                  all.y = TRUE, sort = FALSE))
>  col1 col2
> 1    C    1
> 2    C    1
> 3    A   NA
> 4    A   NA
> 5    0   NA
> 6    0   NA
>
> ## The result is the same. I am stumped here. But looking a bit at these
> ## object I found something peculiar
>
> > str(tmp1)
> `data.frame':   6 obs. of  1 variable:
>  $ col1: Factor w/ 3 levels "0","A","C": 2 2 3 3 1 1
> > str(tmp2)
> `data.frame':   4 obs. of  2 variables:
>  $ col1: Factor w/ 4 levels "C","D","E","F": 1 2 3 4
>  $ col2: int  1 2 3 4
> > str(tmp12)
> `data.frame':   6 obs. of  2 variables:
>  $ col1: Factor w/ 3 levels "0","A","C": 3 3 2 2 1 1
>  $ col2: int  1 1 NA NA NA NA
> > str(tmp21)
> `data.frame':   6 obs. of  2 variables:
>  $ col1: Factor w/ 6 levels "C","D","E","F",..: 1 1 6 6 5 5
>  $ col2: int  1 1 NA NA NA NA
>
> ## Is it OK, that internal presentation of factors vary between
> ## different merges. Levels are also different, once only levels
> ## from original data.frame are used, while in second example all
> ## levels are propagated.
>
> ## I have tried the same with characters
> > tmp1$col1 <- as.character(tmp1$col1)
> > tmp2$col1 <- as.character(tmp2$col1)
> > (tmp12c <- merge(tmp1, tmp2, by.x = "col1", by.y = "col1",
>                  all.x = TRUE, sort = FALSE))
>  col1 col2
> 1    C    1
> 2    C    1
> 3    A   NA
> 4    A   NA
> 5    0   NA
> 6    0   NA
>
> > (tmp21c <- merge(tmp2, tmp1, by.x = "col1", by.y = "col1",
>                  all.y = TRUE, sort = FALSE))
>  col1 col2
> 1    C    1
> 2    C    1
> 3    A   NA
> 4    A   NA
> 5    0   NA
> 6    0   NA
>
> ## The same with characters. Is this a bug. It definitely does not agree
> ## with help page, since order is not the same as in 'y'. Can someone
> ## please check on newer versions?
>
> ## Is there any other way to get the same order as in 'y' i.e. tmp1?
>
> > R.version
>         _
> platform i486-pc-linux-gnu
> arch     i486
> os       linux-gnu
> system   i486, linux-gnu
> status
> major    2
> minor    2.0
> year     2005
> month    10
> day      06
> svn rev  35749
> language R
>
> Thank you very much!
>
> --
> Lep pozdrav / With regards,
>    Gregor Gorjanc
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> University of Ljubljana     PhD student
> Biotechnical Faculty
> Zootechnical Department     URI: http://www.bfro.uni-lj.si/MR/ggorjan
> Groblje 3                   mail: gregor.gorjanc <at> bfro.uni-lj.si
>
> SI-1230 Domzale             tel: +386 (0)1 72 17 861
> Slovenia, Europe            fax: +386 (0)1 72 17 888
>
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