[R-sig-Debian] How to use stable release in Ubuntu

[Michael Rutter]

On 04/07/2014 11:36 AM, Francesco Brundu wrote:
> Hi Michael, Rune,
>
> I checked with R 3.0.3, using sudo aptitude install
> r-base=3.0.3-1precise0 r-base-core=3.0.3-1precise0
> r-recommended=3.0.3-1precise0
> and it seems it can be really a regression (now with 3.0.3 my problem
> has disappeared)
>
> I posted some hours ago on Stack Overflow
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22912936/why-r-returns-na-when-computing-mean-on-non-null-matrix/22913923#22913923
>
> I think that read.table forces a matrix to be non numeric, while I
> checked and all the matrix is only composed by floats. Having non
> numeric data does not allow to do operations on this. Unfortunately I
> cannot disclose the dataset. However if I can tell you more ask me.
>
> Thanks

The first entry in NEWS for R 3.1.0 is this:

     * type.convert() (and hence by default read.table()) returns a
       character vector or factor when representing a numeric input as a
       double would lose accuracy.  Similarly for complex inputs.

       If a file contains numeric data with unrepresentable numbers of
       decimal places that are intended to be read as numeric, specify
       colClasses in read.table() to be "numeric".

The solution is given and the change will be seen in the release version 
of R 3.1.0 I will push later this week.  I have a feeling this will 
effect a number of users, but the solution is an easy fix.

Michael


-- 
Dr. Michael A. Rutter
Associate Professor of Statistics
Program Coordinator, Mathematics
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College
Station Road
Erie, PA 16563
http://math.bd.psu.edu/faculty/rutter