[R] Converting unique strings to unique numbers

[MacQueen, Don]

Here is an example to get you started:

mycol <- c('b','a','d','d','b','c')
as.numeric(factor(mycol))

-Don

-- 
Don MacQueen

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





On 5/29/15, 9:58 AM, "Kate Ignatius" <kate.ignatius at gmail.com> wrote:

>I have a pedigree file as so:
>
>X0001 BYX859      0      0  2  1 BYX859
>X0001 BYX894      0      0  1  1 BYX894
>X0001 BYX862 BYX894 BYX859  2  2 BYX862
>X0001 BYX863 BYX894 BYX859  2  2 BYX863
>X0001 BYX864 BYX894 BYX859  2  2 BYX864
>X0001 BYX865 BYX894 BYX859  2  2 BYX865
>
>And I was hoping to change all unique string values to numbers.
>
>That is:
>
>BYX859 = 1
>BYX894 = 2
>BYX862 = 3
>BYX863 = 4
>BYX864 = 5
>BYX865 = 6
>
>But only in columns 2 - 4.  Essentially I would like the data to look
>like this:
>
>X0001 1 0 0  2  1 BYX859
>X0001 2 0 0  1  1 BYX894
>X0001 3 2 1  2  2 BYX862
>X0001 4 2 1  2  2 BYX863
>X0001 5 2 1  2  2 BYX864
>X0001 6 2 1  2  2 BYX865
>
>Is this possible with factors?
>
>Thanks!
>
>K.
>
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