[R] as.factor does not work inside function

Xiaobo Gu guxiaobo1982 at gmail.com
Sun Dec 11 03:06:51 CET 2011


Hi,

I am trying to write a function do cast columns of data frame as
factor in a loop, the source is :


as.factor.loop <- function(df, cols){

	if (!is.null(df) && !is.null(cols) && length(cols) > 0)
	{
		for(col in cols)
    {
			df[[col]] <- as.factor(df[[col]])
		}
	}
}


source('D:/ambertuil.r')
x <- 1:5
y <- 2:6
df <- data.frame(x=x, y=y)
as.factor.loop(df, c("x"))

But after the function call, the df data frame does not change,
because

is.factor(df[["x]])
FALSE

But if I call this in R console directlly, it works

for(col in c("x","y")){df[[col]] <- as.factor(df[[col]])}



is.factor(df[["x]])
FALSE


Regards,

Xiaobo Gu



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