This is what I was looking for. Using mode instead of as.numeric is a great idea. Many thanks. Balázs
jholtman wrote: > > Try this as a solution: > >> df <- data.frame(a=letters[15:17], b=c("21","NA","23"), c=10:12, d=15:17) >> # convert to numeric >> x <- as.matrix(df) >> mode(x) <- "numeric" > Warning message: > In eval(expr, envir, enclos) : NAs introduced by coercion >> cbind(df, RTot=rowSums(x, na.rm=TRUE)) > a b c d RTot > 1 o 21 10 15 46 > 2 p NA 11 16 27 > 3 q 23 12 17 52 >> > > > On Tue, Sep 2, 2008 at 5:50 PM, Ralikwen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> Hi, >> I am new to R. >> I have a dataframe with many columns some of which contain genuine >> strings >> some numerical values as strings. The dataframe is created by cast so I >> have >> no control over the resulting data type. >> I want to attach columns as aggregates of other columns to the dataframe. >> Here is the solution that I came up with (after a lot of struggle): >> >> castNum <- function(n) { >> x<-as.numeric(as.character(n)) >> if (is.na(x)){ >> return(n) >> }else{ >> return(x) >> } >> } >> df <- data.frame(a=letters[15:17], b=c("21","NA","23"), c=10:12, d=15:17) >> cbind(df,RTot=rowSums(as.data.frame(lapply(df, function(x) >> castNum(x)))[2:4],na.rm=TRUE)) >> >> This works, but is full of warnings and looks extremely ugly. >> Could you direct me how to achieve the same result in a more elegant way? >> >> Thx. >> Balázs >> >> >> >> -- >> View this message in context: >> http://www.nabble.com/converting-values-of-a-dataframe-to-numeric-%28where-possible%29-tp19279139p19279139.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. >> > > > > -- > 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. > > -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/converting-values-of-a-dataframe-to-numeric-%28where-possible%29-tp19279139p19285327.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.