Skip to content

strange behaviour of certain fields in data frame after rbind

2 messages · Joris DeWolf, Brian Ripley

Joris DeWolf
# 
Can anybody explain me what is going wrong with the rbind command or how 
I could avoid the problem?
I have a script with loops which time has a dataframe as output (called 
T2sbdata). After each loop I would like to append that dataframe to the 
results I obtained from the previous loops (called T2sbdataALL) and use 
for that purpose rbind.

Below a part of the loop and the result I get. The rbind command does it 
job as I would expect, but cannot append the column PTGEvent properly.

I use R Version 1.6.2 under Linux.

Thanks

Joris

print("how original data look like")
print(T2sbdataALL[1:8])
print("how data to be appended look like")
print(T2sbdata[1:8])
T2sbdataALL <- rbind(T2sbdataALL,T2sbdata)
print("How all data look after rbind")
print(T2sbdataALL[1:8])




[1] "how original data look like"
   IDSSB IDSeed   CDnr   PTGEvent          ExpNr IDExp WPSNumber      
TypeExp
35 12102 150008 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
36 12103 150328 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
37 12104 150307 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
38 12105 150327 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
39 12106 150304 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
40 12107 149693 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
41 12108 150303 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
42 12109 149698 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
43 12110 150320 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
44 12111 150301 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
45 12112 150034 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
[1] "how data to be appended look like"
   IDSSB IDSeed   CDnr   PTGEvent          ExpNr IDExp WPSNumber      
TypeExp
46 12113 150335 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
47 12114 150032 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
48 12115 150293 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
49 12116 150599 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
50 12117 150332 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
51 12118 150287 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
52 12119 150595 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
53 12120 150038 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
54 12121 150286 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
55 12122 150333 CD3629 OS0934-09A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
[1] "How all data look after rbind"
   IDSSB IDSeed   CDnr   PTGEvent          ExpNr IDExp WPSNumber      
TypeExp
35 12102 150008 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
36 12103 150328 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
37 12104 150307 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
38 12105 150327 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
39 12106 150304 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
40 12107 149693 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
41 12108 150303 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
42 12109 149698 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
43 12110 150320 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
44 12111 150301 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
45 12112 150034 CD3629 OS0934-07A E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
46 12113 150335 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
47 12114 150032 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
48 12115 150293 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
49 12116 150599 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
50 12117 150332 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
51 12118 150287 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
52 12119 150595 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
53 12120 150038 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
54 12121 150286 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
55 12122 150333 CD3629       <NA> E0.000.003.205  3116  YD03_17b 
Confirmation
Brian Ripley
# 
o   The data.frame method for rbind() was
        - converting character columns to factors,
        - converting ordered factor columns to unordered factors,
        - failing to append correctly a factor to a character column
          and vice versa.

and my guess is that is what you are seeing.  But we can't tell the
classes of your columns from the printout.  It would have been helpful to 
ask yourself (and tell us) what is special about `certain fields'.
I believe this works properly in 1.6.2 if the fields are either factor or 
character and protected by I() (and hence of class "AsIs").
On Thu, 8 May 2003, Joris DeWolf wrote: