Factors include a comprehensive list of all possible values they can assume. Your name columns have different numbers of names, so they are really very different factors. The best solution for you is to convert those columns to character.

You also ought to learn how to use the merge function before you write much code like your example.
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swonder03 <ramey.steven@gmail.com> wrote:

*Bottom Line: How can I compare the individual components of two data frames
with different row lengths without the levels interfering?*

Example: I have two data frames to those respectively named 'dfCity' and
'dfState' that have the following output:

dfCity

Name City 
1 Bill Detroit 
2 Jody Chicago
3 Frank Memphis 
4 Ron Houston 

dfState

Name State
1 Bill Michigan
2 Frank Tennessee 

I have an if statement that is trying to compare the individual's names and
combine the data from the two different data frames to produce some output: 

for(j in 1:length(row.names(dfState))){
			for(k in 1:length(row.names(dfCity))){
				if(dfCity[k,1] == dfState[j,1]){
					cityState <- paste(dfCity[k,2], ", ", dfState[j,2], sep= "") 
					print(dfCity[1, j], " is from ", cityState)
				}
			}
		}

However, when I run it I get the error /Error in Ops.factor(dfState[2, 1],
dfCity[4, 1]) : level sets of factors are different/ due to the levels in
the data frames. *How can I compare the individual components of the data
frame without the levels interfering? *

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