[R] Collapsing levels of a factor

[Gregor Gorjanc]

>> 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
> 

I find particulary usefull the list approach. Here is the example from
levels help page. I like this approach, since you can modify list and
apply it to a factor via levels.

  ## we can add levels this way:
     f <- factor(c("a","b"))
     levels(f) <- c("c", "a", "b")
     f

     f <- factor(c("a","b"))
     levels(f) <- list(C="C", A="a", B="b")
     f

I was playing around this last week and wrote a simple function[1],
which can save you some work in getting such a list from a factor. Is R
core interested in it?

[1]http://www.bfro.uni-lj.si/MR/ggorjan/software/R/ggmisc/factorMap.R

-- 
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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"One must learn by doing the thing; for though you think you know it,
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