I am not sure whether this is a bug or a feature, but I thought that these two would have identical effects ...
data(iris) iris[, 5] <- as.character(iris[, 5]) is.factor(iris[, 5])
[1] TRUE
is.factor(iris$Species)
[1] TRUE
data(iris) iris$Species <- as.character(iris$Species) is.factor(iris[, 5])
[1] FALSE
is.factor(iris$Species)
[1] FALSE Cheers, Jonathan. --please do not edit the information below-- Version: platform = sparc-sun-solaris2.7 arch = sparc os = solaris2.7 system = sparc, solaris2.7 status = major = 1 minor = 1.1 year = 2000 month = August day = 15 language = R Search Path: .GlobalEnv, package:patches, Autoloads, package:base -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- r-devel mailing list -- Read http://www.ci.tuwien.ac.at/~hornik/R/R-FAQ.html Send "info", "help", or "[un]subscribe" (in the "body", not the subject !) To: r-devel-request@stat.math.ethz.ch _._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._._