[R] Data import R: some explanatory variables not showing up correctly in summary

Thu Jun 1 18:10:22 CEST 2017

It looks like your printouts are based on the R summary() function? The function lists the number of cases in the 5 largest categories when the variable is coded as a FACTOR.

David C

-----Original Message-----
From: R-help [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of David L Carlson
Sent: Thursday, June 1, 2017 11:07 AM
To: Ulrik Stervbo <ulrik.stervbo at gmail.com>; Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt>; Tara Adcock <taraadcock1 at hotmail.com>; r-help at r-project.org
Cc: William Dunlap via R-help <r-help at r-project.org>
Subject: Re: [R] Data import R: some explanatory variables not showing up correctly in summary

It looks like your printouts are based on the R summary() function? The function lists the number of cases in the 5 largest categories when the variable is coded as a function. Then it indicates how many other categories are present. This is described on the manual page for function summary().

In the first case the duplicates probably represent cases in your source data (a spreadsheet?), where you have inadvertently put a space at the end of the label, e.g. "combination", and "combination ". The answers to both questions are easy to find with the levels() function:

levels(yourdataframe$Position) 

This will list all of the factor levels in variable Position for you. If there are extras spaces and you were using read.csv() to import the data, use the strip.white=TRUE argument to delete leading and trailing spaces. This is also documented on the manual page for function read.csv(). One of the problems with spreadsheets is that these extra spaces are not readily apparent.

-------------------------------------
David L Carlson
Department of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77840-4352

-----Original Message-----
From: R-help [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Ulrik Stervbo
Sent: Thursday, June 1, 2017 10:50 AM
To: Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt>; Tara Adcock <taraadcock1 at hotmail.com>; r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] Data import R: some explanatory variables not showing up correctly in summary

Hi Tara,

It seems that you categorise and count for each category. Could it be that
the method you use puts everything that doesn't match the predefined
categories in Other?

I'm only guessing because without a minimal  reproducible example it's
difficult to do anything else.

Best wishes
Ulrik

Rui Barradas <ruipbarradas at sapo.pt> schrieb am Do., 1. Juni 2017, 17:30:

> Hello,
>
> In order for us to help we need to know how you've imported your data.
> What was the file type? What instructions have you used to import it?
> Did you use base R or a package?
> Give us a minimal but complete code example that can reproduce your
> situation.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> Rui Barradas
>
> Em 01-06-2017 11:02, Tara Adcock escreveu:
> > Hi,
> >
> > I have a question regarding data importing into R.
> >
> > When I import my data into R and review the summary, some of my
> explanatory variables are being reported as if instead of being one
> variable, they are two with the same name. See below for an example;
> >
> >     Behav person         Behav dog               Position
> >    **combination  : 38   combination  :  4**     Bank    :372
> >    **combination  :  7   combination  :  4**   **Island  :119**
> >      fast         :123   fast         : 15     **Island  : 11**
> >      slow         :445   slow         : 95       Land    :  3
> >      stat         :111   stat         : 14       Water   :230
> >
> > Also, all of the distances I have imported are showing up in the summary
> along with a line entitled "other". However, I haven't used any other
> distances?
> >
> >     Distance        Distance.dog
> >     2-10m  :184     <50m   : 35
> >     <50m   :156     2-10m  : 27
> >     10-20m :156     20-30m : 23
> >     20-30m : 91     30-40m : 16
> >     40-50m : 57     10-20m : 13
> >     **(Other): 82   (Other): 18**
> >
> > I have checked my data sheet over and over again and I think
> standardised the data, but the issue keeps arising. I'm assuming I need to
> clean the data set but as a nearly complete novice in R I am not certain
> how to do this. Any help at all with this would be much appreciated. Thanks
> so much.
> >
> > Kind Regards,
> >
> > Tara Adcock.
> >
> >
> >       [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> >
> > ______________________________________________
> > 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.
> >
>
> ______________________________________________
> 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.
>

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

______________________________________________
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.