Message-ID: <4CFCA347.7090302@uni-hamburg.de>
Date: 2010-12-06T08:48:07Z
From: Ivan Calandra
Subject: knowing the code-number of factors in a vector
In-Reply-To: <201012040204.31392.Rainer.Schuermann@gmx.net>
Hi!
As Ben Bolker told you already, the levels are alphabetically ordered by
default.
When you print rfactor, the last line shows you the different levels, in
the saved order.
rfactor
[1] c c c d b a b d d a a e e b b e c e e a a b b b a b a e a a b d b b
c a b b
[39] d c a e c d e d a a a a
Levels: a b c d e ## here
If you want to change the order manually, do this:
rfactor=as.factor(sample(letters[1:5], 50, replace=T))
rfactor
[1] e e a a e a a a b a a d a b a b b c d c b e b e d d c a a e a b c
e b c b e
[39] a e e d b e c b e d a e ## different values because of sample()
Levels: a b c d e
rfactor2 <- factor(rfactor, levels=c("e","d","c","b","a"))
rfactor2
[1] e e a a e a a a b a a d a b a b b c d c b e b e d d c a a e a b c
e b c b e
[39] a e e d b e c b e d a e ## but the values here are the same as for
my rfactor
Levels: e d c b a ## note that the order here is the
one you typed in your call to factor(, levels=)
HTH,
Ivan
Le 12/4/2010 02:04, Rainer Schuermann a ?crit :
> It seems to be dependent upon the the character ("assigned alphabetically") which I found out by manually changing the order of appearance of the characters in rfactor; the colour would stick to the character "a", whether this appears first in rfactor or not.
>
> I as able to control the colours being used by
>> boxplot(x~rfactor, col=c("2", "6", "3","5","4"))
> Rgds,
> Rainer
>
> Disclaimer:
> I'm new to R and very early on the learning curve - just trying my best...
>
>
> On Saturday 04 December 2010 01:22:56 Eduardo Klein wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I would like to know how R assigns the numeric code to a set of factors
>> in a vector. For example, I have a vector of 5 different factors in a
>> random order, and I want a color-coded plot by factors:
>>
>> rfactor=as.factor(sample(letters[1:5], 50, replace=T))
>> rfactor
>> [1] c c c d b a b d d a a e e b b e c e e a a b b b a b a e a a b d b
>> b c a b b
>> [39] d c a e c d e d a a a a
>> Levels: a b c d e
>>
>> x=rnorm(50)
>> boxplot(x~rfactor, col=1:5)
>>
>> So, colors 1 to 5 are assigned to factors alphabetically (a-1, b-2, ...,
>> e-5), or by order of appearance (c-1, d-2, b-3, a-4, e-5)? It is
>> possible to control that?
>>
>> Saludos, EKS
>>
>>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at 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.
>
--
Ivan CALANDRA
PhD Student
University of Hamburg
Biozentrum Grindel und Zoologisches Museum
Abt. S?ugetiere
Martin-Luther-King-Platz 3
D-20146 Hamburg, GERMANY
+49(0)40 42838 6231
ivan.calandra at uni-hamburg.de
**********
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