convert factor to numeric

Philipp Pagel <p.pagel at gsf.de> writes:

But I just can't believe there is no R function to do this in a more
readable way. Actually, the behaviour of as.numeric() doesn't strike me
as very intuitive. I'm sure it has been implemented that way for a
reason - but what is it?

One reason is S compatibility, as Brian pointed out. But there is also
the point that you can *always* convert a factor to its underlying
integer values, but only *sometimes* convert the level names. Generally
we prefer code that fails more rarely...

as.numeric(as.character(f)) works too, although not quite as
efficiently as as.numeric(levels(f))[f].

O__  ---- Peter Dalgaard             Blegdamsvej 3  
  c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics     2200 Cph. N   
 (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen   Denmark      Ph: (+45) 35327918
~~~~~~~~~~ - (p.dalgaard at biostat.ku.dk)             FAX: (+45) 35327907