[R] Reclassify string values

[Peter Langfelder]

On Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 1:31 PM, Zev Ross <zev at zevross.com> wrote:
> Hi Peter,
>
> Thanks for the response. What you've suggested works fine but I'm looking
> for something that is simpler than my solution and avoids the pesky warning
> message. Your response avoids the warning message but just as complex (if
> not more). I just assumed there would be a function along the lines of:
>
>> mydata <- c("A", "C", "A", "D", "B", "B")
>> reclassify(mydata, inCategories=c("A", "B" ,"C", "D"),
>>  outCategories=c("Group1", "Group1", "Group2", "Group2"))
>
> [1] "Group1" "Group2" "Group1" "Group2" "Group1" "Group1"
>

But of course, except sometimes you have to write the function yourself.

reclassify = function(data, inCategories, outCategories)
{
   outCategories[ match(data, inCategories)]
}

Sorry I can't make it any simpler than a 1-line solution :)

Feel free to add some checking of input validity, if you need that.

Peter