A very simple question. With a data frame like this: > n = c(2, 3, 5) > s = c("aa", "bb", "cc") > df = data.frame(n, s) I want df$s[1] or df[1,2], but how can I get rid of the extra line in the output about the factor levels: > df$s[1] [1] aa Levels: aa bb cc Thanks, Gang