Sorting a data frame with values of different lengths

Hi all,

I am attempting to run a script in which I permute my data and run a
Wilcoxon rank sum test on the data 1000 times and compare my original test
statistic to the permuted test statistics to more accurately estimate a
significance level for the trends I am observing.

In the process of doing this, I need to sort a data frame that measures 3 x
1001 based on the value of the test statistic (W). ?I am trying to get the
data in ascending order based on W. ?My data frame looks something like
this:

W_table

? pds_gagehandles.i. ?p ? ? W
W ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?1 ? 746
2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?2 870.5
3 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?3 ? 767
4 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?4 ?1066
5 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?5 ? 885
6 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?6 931.5
7 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?7 ? 765
8 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?8 ? 930
9 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?9 696.5
10 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? mibe 10 711.5
11 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? mibe 11 ?1006

I am trying to sort it using the command: > W_table[order(W_table$W),],
which is spitting out:

? pds_gagehandles.i. ?p ? ? W
11 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? mibe 11 ?1006
4 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?4 ?1066
9 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?9 696.5
10 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? mibe 10 711.5
W ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?1 ? 746
7 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?7 ? 765
3 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?3 ? 767
2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?2 870.5
5 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?5 ? 885
8 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?8 ? 930
6 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?mibe ?6 931.5

I want this data frame to have the values that are currently the first two
as the last two, i.e. I need it in ascending order. ?I am thinking that I am
having this problem because W is different lengths and ?order states the
data should be "a sequence of numeric, complex, character or logical
vectors, all of the same length, or a classed R object". ?Maybe because the
values over 1000 have an extra digit R is seeing them as '100' for some
reason? Does anyone know of another function I can use to accomplish this
task or a way to work around this error?

Thank you very much,

Billy

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