[R] equivalent code that doesn't return same results?

[cwladis]

I need to automate changing the reference value for factors in analysis, and
it is my understanding that the following two sets of code should produce
identical results, but they do not:
1)dataset$method
2)eval(parse(text=paste("dataset",IVcat[k],sep="$")))        (in this case I
have IVcat[k]=method, which is why they are equal)

I even tested them in R, which says that these two objects are identical:
> identical(dataset$method,eval(parse(text=paste("dataset",IVcat[k],sep="$"))))
[1] TRUE

However, when I write the following code, which is the same in both cases
(except that the first case uses expression (1) above and the second case
uses expression (2)), it works in the first case but returns an error code
in the second:
> dataset$method<-relevel(dataset$method,ref="online")
This code properly changes the reference level as desired.  

> eval(parse(text=paste("dataset",IVcat[k],sep="$")))<-relevel(eval(parse(text=paste("dataset",IVcat[k],sep="$"))),ref="online")
This code returns the following error:
Error in eval(parse(text = paste("dataset", IVcat[k], sep = "$"))) <-
relevel(eval(parse(text = paste("dataset",  : 
  target of assignment expands to non-language object

I'm new to R, so maybe I'm making a stupid mistake here (maybe because I'm
still not understanding the relevel function properly?), but I've been
banging my head against this for most of the day, and I'm out of ideas...

Thanks for taking the time to read my post, and thanks in advance for any
help!



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