[R] levels of factor when subsetting the factor

[Douglas Bates]

On 9/12/06, Afshartous, David <afshart at exchange.sba.miami.edu> wrote:
>
> All,
>
> When I take a subset of a factor the reduced factor still maintains all
> the original levels of the factor when say forming the key in a plot.
> The data is correct, but the variable still "remembers" the original
> levels.  See below for reproducible code.  Does anyone know how to fix
> this?

Use the optional argument "drop = TRUE"

> cheers,
> dave
>
> fact = as.factor(c(rep("A", 3),rep("B", 3), rep("C", 3)))
> new.fact = fact[1:6]
> > new.fact
> [1] A A A B B B
> Levels: A B C    ## should only show A B

> fact[1:6, drop = TRUE]
[1] A A A B B B
Levels: A B