[R] as.numeric in data.frame, but only where it is possible

[hadley wickham]

On Thu, Nov 27, 2008 at 12:53 AM, Kinoko <andzsinszan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I would like to convert my "character" sequences in my matrix/
> data.frame into "numeric" where it is possible.
> I would also like to retain my alphabetic character strings in their
> original forms.
> "5.1"     >   5.1
> "hm"     >  "hm"
>
> k<-matrix(c("aa", "bb", 1,2, 4.3, 0), nrow=2)
> mode(k) <- "numeric"
> # ln1  coerces numeric chars into "character"  and
> # ln2  replaces alphabet chars with NA  (with warnings)
> #   => OK as matrix can't have mixed types
>
> k<-matrix(c("aa", "bb", 1,2, 4.3, 0), nrow=2)
> g<-as.data.frame(k, stringsAsFactos=FALSE)

Try this:

g <-as.data.frame(k, stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
str(g)
g[] <- lapply(g, type.convert)
str(g)

Hadley


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