This happens to me as well.  I just create a new column in the shapefile
object's data, like:

shp$AreaNum = as.numeric(as.vector(shp$AREA))

If all you want to know is "why is it coded this way" then I have no idea,
sorry.

-James

On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 10:29 AM, Agustin Lobo <aloboaleu@gmail.com> wrote:

> I often get some numeric fields (i.e, AREA in this case) imported
> as factors by readOGR() from shp files. WHy could it be?
> I've reviewed the field in the dbf file and do not
> see any non-numeric value.
>
> Thanks
> Agus
> --
> Dr. Agustin Lobo
> Institut de Ciencies de la Terra "Jaume Almera" (CSIC)
> LLuis Sole Sabaris s/n
> 08028 Barcelona
> Spain
> Tel. 34 934095410
> Fax. 34 934110012
> email: Agustin.Lobo@ija.csic.es
> http://www.ija.csic.es/gt/obster
>
> _______________________________________________
> R-sig-Geo mailing list
> R-sig-Geo@stat.math.ethz.ch
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-geo
>

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]


