[R] Problem with converting factors to numbers

[Petr PIKAL]

Hi
> 
> [R] Problem with converting factors to numbers
> 
> Hi all,
> I have a very simple problem, but i cant find a solution probably 
because i
> search for the wrong keywords.
> 
> I have coordinates x and y. They look like this:
> 
> > str(data)
> 'data.frame':   13979 obs. of  2 variables:
>  $ x               : Factor w/ 3815 levels "","186011.4971280",..: 1528 
1524
> 1524 1524 1524 ...
>  $ y               : Factor w/ 3792 levels "","449372.9599780",..: 1333 
1116
> 1116 1116 1116 ...
> 
> 
> > data$x[1:10]
>  [1] 186843.8131840 186842.6156650 186842.6156650 186842.6156650
> 186842.6156650 186842.6156650 186842.6156650 186842.6156650
>  [9] 186842.6156650 186842.6156650
> 3815 Levels:  186011.4971280 186021.0356270 186048.6246680 
186051.3570180
> 186052.7204140 186052.9162970 ... 188132.9056840
> 
> 
> I want them in *numbers*, so i run:
> data$x2 <- as.numeric(data$x)
> 
> But what it did is this:
> > data$x2[1:10]
>  [1] 1528 1524 1524 1524 1524 1524 1524 1524 1524 1524
> 
> I tried converting it via character and then to numeric, but also that 
didnt
> work.

It shall work. However nobody knows how did you apply converting via 
character and numeric until you post the code you actually used.

>From str it seems to me that either your data are from beginning non 
numeric or you have some non numeric characters in your input data.

Regards
Petr

> 
> Anyone ideas?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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