[R] Constant Error in R

[David Winsemius]

On Oct 9, 2012, at 2:30 PM, bobo wrote:

> Hi good R folks,
> 
> I am hoping that you could help me resolve this issue. I tried finding
> answers online but to no avail.
> 
> I keep getting this "Error in x^2 : non-numeric argument to binary operator"
> using multiple different codes, ones which have been verified to work by my
> professor and other students.
> 
> I tried reinstalling R completely and it still didn't fix the issue.
> 
> I am using the latest version and Mac 10.8.2.
> 
> Thank you!
> 
> I am posting the code where the error occurred below:
> 
> library(foreign)
> library(lmtest)
> library(car)
> 
> x.1 <- runif(1000,0,1)
> 
> x.2 <- rbinom(1000,1,.5)
> 
> b.1 <- 10
> b.2 <- 2
> 
> mu <- 1+(x.1*b.1) + (x.2*b.2)
> 
> Z <- cbind(x.1)
> 
> gamma <- 10
> 
> sigma2 <- exp(2+Z*gamma)
> 
> y <- mu +rnorm(1000) * sqrt(sigma2)
> 
> lm.y<-lm(y~x.1+x.2)
> 
> "Error in x^2 : non-numeric argument to binary operator"

Well, something is strange here. Your error message is stating that the interpreter was unable to find x^2, but you have no x^2 expression in your code. I ran the code (except for the library calls which were clearly not needed for those commands. No error. I then loaded the packages and re-ran the code. Again, no errors.


> 
> summary(lm.y)

You probably need to restart R with the --vanilla option or if you are using a GUI, locate and rename the .Rdata file and then restart. If the error persist, you should post sessionInfo() results.

-- 

David Winsemius, MD
Alameda, CA, USA