[R] Collapsing levels of a factor

[Gabor Grothendieck]

Sorry, here is the code:

> x <- ts(1:12)
> y <- ifelse(rep(TRUE, 12), x, x)
> str(x)
 Time-Series [1:12] from 1 to 12: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...
> str(y)
 int [1:12] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...

On 3/17/06, Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck at gmail.com> wrote:
> The problem is that ifelse strips attributes.  For example, consider
> this which has nothing to do with factors but illustrates the point
> with ifelse:
>
> > x <- ts(1:12)
> > y <- ifelse(TRUE, x, x)
> > str(x)
>  Time-Series [1:12] from 1 to 12: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ...
> > str(y)
>  int 1
>
>
> On 3/17/06, Göran Broström <goran.brostrom at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > x <- factor(1:3, labels = c("b" , "f", "minus"))
> > > x
> > [1] b     f     minus
> > Levels: b f minus
> >
> > I want to change all "minus" to "b". I know that the simplest way to do this is
> >
> > > levels(x)  <- c("b", "f", "b")
> >
> > and also that
> >
> > >  x[x == "minus"] <- "b"
> > > x <- factor(x)
> >
> > works. But why not
> >
> > > x <- ifelse(x == "minus", "b", x)
> > > x <- factor(x)
> > x
> > [1] 1 2 b
> > Levels: 1 2 b
> >
> > ?
> > --
> > Göran Broström
> >
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