Hi
r-help-boun...@r-project.org napsal dne 12.12.2010 21:00:37:
> At 12.12.2010 00:48 +0200, Tal Galili wrote:
> >Hello dear R-help mailing list,
> >
> >My question is *not* about how factors are implemented in R (which is,
if I
> >understand correctly, that factors keeps numbers and assign levels to
them).
> >My question *is* about why so many functions that work on factors don't
> >treat them as characters by default?
> >
> >Here are two simple examples:
> >Example one turning the characters inside a factor into numeric:
> >
> >x <- factor(4:6)
> >as.numeric(x) # output: 1 2 3
> >as.numeric(as.character(x)) # output: 4 5 6 # isn't this what we
wanted?
> >
> >
> >Example two, using strsplit on a factor:
> >
> >x <- factor(paste(letters[4:6], 4:6, sep="A"))
> >strsplit(x, "A") # will result in an error: # Error in strsplit(x,
"A") :
> >non-character argument
> >strsplit(as.character(x), "A") # will work and split
> >
> >
> >So what is the reason this is the case?
> >Is it that implementing a switch of factors to characters as the
default in
> >some of the basic function will cause old code to break?
> >Is it a better design in some other way?
> >
> >I am curious to know the reason for this.
>
> In my view the answer can be found implicitly in the language
definition.
>
> "Factors are currently implemented using an integer array to specify
> the actual levels and a second array of names that are mapped to the
> integers. Rather unfortunately users often make use of the
> implementation in order to make some calculations easier."
>
> It is the "unfortunate" use of factors that seems generally accepted,
> even if the language definition continues:
>
> "This, however, is an implementation issue and is not guaranteed to
> hold in all implementations of R."
>
> Personally, like some others, I avoid factors, except in cases, where
> they represent a statistical concept.
On contrary I find factors quite useful. Consider possibility to change
its levels
> set.seed(111)
> x <- factor(sample(1:4, 20, replace=T), labels=c("one", "two", "three",
"four"))
> x
[1] three three two three two two one three two one three
three
[13] one one one two one four two three
Levels: one two three four
> levels(x)[3:4] <- "more"
> x
[1] more more two more two two one more two one more more one one
one
[16] two one more two more
Levels: one two more
I believe that if x is character, it can be also done but factor way seems
to me more convenient. I also use point distinction in plots by
pch=as.numeric(some.factor) quite often.
Anyway it is maybe more about personal habits than about bad factor
"features"
Regards
Petr
>
> Certainly I would agree with you that, if only reading the "R
> Language Definition" and not the documentation of the function
> factor, one would rather expect functions like as.numeric or strsplit
> to operate on the levels of a factor and not on the underlying,
> implementation specific, integer array.
>
> Heinz
>
>
>
> >Thank you for your reading,
> >Tal
> >
> >----------------Contact
> >Details:-------------------------------------------------------
> >Contact me: tal.gal...@gmail.com | 972-52-7275845
> >Read me: www.talgalili.com (Hebrew) | www.biostatistics.co.il (Hebrew)
|
> >www.r-statistics.com (English)
>
>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
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> >
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