[R] knittr: non-numeric argument to binary operator

[Milt Epstein]

I was getting pretty much the same error recently, when I joined this
list (I'm new to R), and the solution turned out to be that I needed
to call as.integer() on a certain value, before passing it to a
function.  In my case it was a value read/returned from commandArgs(),
but I suppose there are other situations where this could arise.

Milt Epstein
Programmer in Computational Genomics
Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC)
mepstein at illinois.edu


On Sun, 26 Apr 2015, John Kane wrote:

> We need some idea of what you were actually doing (i.e code, data, ... )
> 
> See http://adv-r.had.co.nz/Reproducibility.html for some suggestions.
> John Kane
> Kingston ON Canada
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: mark at markdrummond.ca
> > Sent: Sun, 26 Apr 2015 16:41:32 -0400
> > To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> > Subject: [R] knittr: non-numeric argument to binary operator
> > 
> > knittr is giving me the above error. The code it is failing on is
> > multiplying two numeric features of a data frame. I can run the code
> > by hand and it works fine, but when I try to knit my document, knittr
> > chokes on the same line.
> > 
> > When kitting:
> > 
> > Quitting from lines 161-175 (RepData_PeerAssessment2.Rmd)
> > Error in storm_data$PROPDMG * storm_data$property_damage_cost_factor :
> >   non-numeric argument to binary operator
> > Calls: <Anonymous> ... handle -> withCallingHandlers -> withVisible ->
> > eval -> eval
> > Execution halted
> > 
> > Running the same lines manually (CTRL+Enter) from the .Rmd file:
> > 
> >> storm_data$total_damage <-
> > + (storm_data$PROPDMG * storm_data$property_damage_cost_factor) +
> > + (storm_data$CROPDMG * storm_data$crop_damage_cost_factor)
> >> str(storm_data$total_damage)
> >  num [1:902297] 25 2.5 25 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 2.5 25 25 ...
> >> 
> > 
> > Call me baffled. Any pointers are greatly appreciated at this point.
> > 
> > --
> > Cheers, Mark
> > 
> > Mark Drummond
> > mark at markdrummond.ca
> > 
> > When I get sad, I stop being sad and be Awesome instead. TRUE STORY.
> > 
> > ______________________________________________
> > R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> > PLEASE do read the posting guide
> > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
> 
> ____________________________________________________________
> Can't remember your password? Do you need a strong and secure password?
> Use Password manager! It stores your passwords & protects your account.
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>