>> on the whole, it seems to me that character
>> input gets used as factor data so much of the time when it is
>> used at all that the default stringsAsFactors=TRUE setting
>> seems the more sensible default.
>
> I disagree with this last point. Just think of the number of
> questions to this
Hi
> -Original Message-
> From: r-help-boun...@r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces@r-
> project.org] On Behalf Of Rui Barradas
> Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 2:03 PM
> To: S Ellison
> Cc: r-help
> Subject: Re: [R] Opinion: Why I find factors convenient to use
>
radas
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 8:03 AM
To: S Ellison
Cc: r-help
Subject: Re: [R] Opinion: Why I find factors convenient to use
Hello,
Em 20-08-2012 12:30, S Ellison escreveu:
>
>
>> -Original Message-
>> Over the years, many people -- including some who I wou
Hello,
Em 20-08-2012 12:30, S Ellison escreveu:
-Original Message-
Over the years, many people -- including some who I would
consider real expeRts -- have criticized factors and
advocated the use (sometimes exclusively) of character
vectors instead.
Exclusive use of character vector
> -Original Message-
> Over the years, many people -- including some who I would
> consider real expeRts -- have criticized factors and
> advocated the use (sometimes exclusively) of character
> vectors instead.
Exclusive use of character vectors is not going to do the job.
The con
On 08/18/2012 03:32 AM, Bert Gunter wrote:
Folks:
...
So contrary opinions
cheerily welcomed. But perhaps these comments might be helpful to
those who have been "bitten" by factors or just wonder what all the
fuss is about.
I tend to use stringsAsFactors=FALSE quite a bit, as I am often
manipul
On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 07:34:35PM +0100, Rui Barradas wrote:
> Hello,
>
> No, factors may use less memory. System dependent?
>
> > x <-sample(c("small","medium","large"),1e4,rep=TRUE)
> > y <- factor(x)
> > object.size(x)
> 80184 bytes
> > object.size(y)
> 40576 bytes
> >
> > sessionInfo()
> R v
Hello,
Em 17-08-2012 20:27, Bert Gunter escreveu:
... so it may be just the way object.size() counts in the two cases, right?
Or maybe the way character vectors and factors are coded.
(64 bit Windows 7 or ubuntu 12.04) 80k for the character vector seems to
be 8 * 1e4 for pointers plus room fo
On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 11:34 AM, Rui Barradas wrote:
> Hello,
>
> No, factors may use less memory. System dependent?
I think it's a 32-bit vs. 64-bit distinction - I get Rui's results on
64-bit Windows and Linux installation, but Bert's result on a 32-bit
Linux machine.
Peter
>
>> x <-sample(c
Hello,
No, factors may use less memory. System dependent?
> x <-sample(c("small","medium","large"),1e4,rep=TRUE)
> y <- factor(x)
> object.size(x)
80184 bytes
> object.size(y)
40576 bytes
>
> sessionInfo()
R version 2.15.1 (2012-06-22)
Platform: x86_64-pc-mingw32/x64 (64-bit)
locale:
[1] LC_COL
Steve, et. al:
Yes, if object.size() is to be believed, you're right:
> x <-sample(c("small","medium","large"),1e4,rep=TRUE)
> y <- factor(x)
> object.size(x)
40120 bytes
> object.size(y)
40336 bytes
I stand (happily) corrected.
-- Bert
On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 11:09 AM, Steve Lianoglou
wrote:
Hi,
On Fri, Aug 17, 2012 at 1:58 PM, Jeff Newmiller
wrote:
> I don't know if my recent post on this prompted your post, but I don't see
> much to argue with in your discussion. I find factors to be useful for
> managing display and some kinds of analysis.
>
> However, I find them mostly a handi
I don't know if my recent post on this prompted your post, but I don't see much
to argue with in your discussion. I find factors to be useful for managing
display and some kinds of analysis.
However, I find them mostly a handicap when importing, merging, and handling
data QC. Therefore I dela
I second to Bert's opinion, factors can be confusing, but they have quite nice
features which can not be easily mimicked by plain character vectors. I find
extremelly usefull possibility of manipulating its levels.
> fac<-factor(sample(letters[1:5], 20, replace=TRUE))
> fac
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