[R] Is it possible to define another kind of NA

[MacQueen, Don]

Along the lines of what Bert Gunter said, the ideal way to represent <LDL
results depends on the functions used later to analyze them. I deal with
such data on a daily basis and have never found it necessary to
incorporate that information in the same variable as the results. What
would you do if data were censored at both ends, both low and high?

Anyway, the functions I use mostly incorporate that information in a
second variable, a ³detection indicator² variable, and that¹s what I do.

-Don

-- 
Don MacQueen

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
7000 East Ave., L-627
Livermore, CA 94550
925-423-1062





On 11/9/14, 10:07 AM, "Marc Girondot" <marc_grt at yahoo.fr> wrote:

>Dear member list,
>
>In many experimental sciences, there is a lower detection limit (LDL)
>when a dosage of a product is done. Then some samples are evaluated to
>be below this limit.
>I search for the best way to indicate in a data.frame that some values
>are such LDL. Ideally, an equivalent of NA would be the best.
>Until now I manage by indicating all the column in characters.
>So the question is: is it possible to define a value that could be named
>LDL and that could take place in vectors or data.frame such as:
>v <- c(0.2, 0.28, LDL, 0.9) is the same way that NA can be used.
>with of course a function is.ldl(v) that would return F F T F
>
>Thanks a lot for any direction to solve this
>
>Marc
>
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