A function like the one below will give you the class and number of valid entries for a dataset. At sample data set would help determine if it works. It works on a simple data set I created and one from the ggplot2 package but it is not really tested.
With your data set as df1 something like xx <- msum(df1) should supply you with the information. Other than that I really don't see why Hmisc :: describe() would not give you most or all the information you seek with the exception of the "length"thing which really don't understand. Actually I believe describe() will give you the number of non-NA entries for a variable. ========================================================== msum <- function(dat1) { nams <- c("class", "non-missing") cl <- lapply(dat1, class) nas <-colSums(!is.na(dat1)) mysum <- data.frame(unlist(cl), unlist(nas)) names(mysum) <- nams mysum <- mysum } =============================================================== ----- Original Message ----- From: sparandekar <sparande...@yahoo.com.ar> To: r-help@r-project.org Cc: Sent: Monday, December 26, 2011 5:44:53 AM Subject: [R] Summary tables of large datasets including character and numerical variables Hello ! I am attempting to switch from being a long time SAS user to R, and would really appreciate a bit of help ! The first thing I do in getting a large dataset (thousands of obervations and hundreds of variables) is to run a SAS command PROC CONTENTS VARNUM command - this provides me a table with the name of each variable, its type and length; then I run a PROC MEANS - for numerical variables it gives me a table with the number of non-missing values, min, max, mean and std. dev. My data usually has errors and this first step helps me to spot the errors and 'clean' the dataset. The 'summary' function in R and other function as part of Hmisc or Psych package do not work for me. How can I get a table from an R data.frame that has the following structure (header row and example). Rowname Character/Integer Length Non-Missing Minimum Maximum Mean SD HHID Integer 12 32,344 114455007701 514756007812 2.345 x 10^10 1.456 x 10^10 Head Character 38 24,566 - - - - Thank you very much. -- View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Summary-tables-of-large-datasets-including-character-and-numerical-variables-tp4234296p4234296.html Sent from the R help mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ______________________________________________ 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. ______________________________________________ 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.