If you do an 'str' on your boject, you will probably find that TICKER is a factor. This is probably not what you want. So when you create the dataframe 'stock', use the parameter 'stringsAsFactors=FALSE' to prevent the conversion to factors.
In the mean time, you can do: stocks$TICKER <- as.character(stocks$TICKER) On Tue, Aug 3, 2010 at 11:34 AM, Leigh E. Lommen <leigh.lom...@courtesycorporation.com> wrote: > I have an array called "stocks" which contains numeric dates, ticker > symbols,prices, etc. > > > >> stocks[1:3,] > > DATE TICKER PERMNO EXCHCD TSYMBOL TRDSTAT SHROUT PRC > RET > > 1 19950131 EWST 10001 3 EWST A > 2224 -7.75000 -0.031250 > > 2 19950228 EWST 10001 3 EWST A > 2224 7.54688 -0.026210 > > 3 19950331 EWST 10001 3 EWST A > 2244 7.50000 0.006377 > > > > However when I call the part of the array dealing with the Ticker, I > get: > > > >> stocks[2,2] > > [1] EWST > > 16185 Levels: A AA AAA AAAB AAABB AAB AABC AAC AACB AACC AACE AACI ... > ZVXI > > > > Thus, when I reference this later, I get a numeric result and not the > symbol? Is this because I need to change the format of stocks[,2] or > because it has these extra "levels". > > > > For example: > > > > # START FIRST PORTFOLIO > > port1=matrix(0, ctr,3)#matrix for portfolio starting in June 30th 1995 > > > > c=0 > > > > # sort data at time t=1 (June 30th, 1995) > > for (i in 1:T) > > { > > if (stocks[i,1]==19950630) > > { > > c=c+1 > > row=i > > price = abs(stocks[i,8]) > > > > port1[c,1]=stocks[i,1] #put date in first > column > > port1[c,2]=stocks[i,2] #ticker > > port1[c,3]=price #price > > } > > > > } > > > > WHEN I TRY > >> port1[1,2] > > [1] 4934 > > > > I SHOULD GET > > [1] EWST > > ???????? > > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > 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. > -- Jim Holtman Cincinnati, OH +1 513 646 9390 What is the problem that you are trying to solve? ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list 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.