Data type in a data frame

Hi all,

How does R know to regard a variable as a factor and not a character?
For example, consider the following table:

Observation                Gender                Dosage               
Alertness 
1                               m                        a                        
8 
2                               m                        a                       
12 
3                               m                        a                       
13 
4                               m                        a                       
12 
5                               m                        b                        
6 
6                               m                        b                        
7 

When read into a dataframe, will "m", "a", "b" be regarded as a factor or as
a character? How does R decide?

Thanks a lot in advance,

Asaf



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