A cleaner approach than attach()---because you don't need to remember  
to detach()---is:

my.df<-data.frame(cbind(x=runif(100), y=rnorm(100)))
head(my.df)

with(my.df, plot(y~x))
_____________________________
Professor Michael Kubovy
University of Virginia
Department of Psychology
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On Jul 22, 2008, at 10:10 PM, milton ruser wrote:

> Hi Edna,
>
> I am not sure the completely right answer, but I suspect that you use
> data(df) to invoke a data.frame from the sample datasets provided  
> from the
> packages available on your R system. By other side, if you have a  
> data.frame
> loaded on your environent, you can use "attach" do turn the columns
> available on your environment as objects, like this.
>
> my.df<-data.frame(cbind(x=runif(100), y=rnorm(100)))
> head(my.df)
>
> plot(y~x)
>  #you get error
>
> attach(my.df)
> plot(y~x)
>  #you get the plot
>
> detach(my.df) # remove the x,y objects from your environment
> plot(y~x)
>  #you get error again.
>
> On 7/22/08, Edna Bell <edna.bell01@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi!
>>
>> What is the difference between using data(somedataset) vs.
>> attach(somedataset), please?
>>
>> thanks,
>> Edna Bell

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