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Constant Error in R

4 messages · bobo, David Winsemius, S Ellison +1 more

bobo
# 
Hi good R folks,

I am hoping that you could help me resolve this issue. I tried finding
answers online but to no avail.

I keep getting this "Error in x^2 : non-numeric argument to binary operator"
using multiple different codes, ones which have been verified to work by my
professor and other students.

I tried reinstalling R completely and it still didn't fix the issue.

I am using the latest version and Mac 10.8.2.

Thank you!

I am posting the code where the error occurred below:

library(foreign)
library(lmtest)
library(car)

x.1 <- runif(1000,0,1)

x.2 <- rbinom(1000,1,.5)

b.1 <- 10
b.2 <- 2

mu <- 1+(x.1*b.1) + (x.2*b.2)

Z <- cbind(x.1)

gamma <- 10

sigma2 <- exp(2+Z*gamma)

y <- mu +rnorm(1000) * sqrt(sigma2)

lm.y<-lm(y~x.1+x.2)

"Error in x^2 : non-numeric argument to binary operator"

summary(lm.y)



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David Winsemius
#
On Oct 9, 2012, at 2:30 PM, bobo wrote:

            

      
      
      
    

        
Well, something is strange here. Your error message is stating that the interpreter was unable to find x^2, but you have no x^2 expression in your code. I ran the code (except for the library calls which were clearly not needed for those commands. No error. I then loaded the packages and re-ran the code. Again, no errors.

            

      
      
      
    

        
You probably need to restart R with the --vanilla option or if you are using a GUI, locate and rename the .Rdata file and then restart. If the error persist, you should post sessionInfo() results.

  
    

      
      
    

  


  


      

    

    

      
      

        


  

        

      S Ellison
    

    

      
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I confirm the previous poster's lack of error in running the code supplied. I also agree that something strange is going on.

But the error message says you have a non-numeric argument in a binary operator. That means that i) you are using a binary operator (^ in this case) either yourself or in a function you;re calling and ii) either x or 2 is non-numeric. 

Two possibilities that are siompler than recompiling:
First, are you calling the lm() you think you are? Run traceback() after the error to see where it actually occurred. You may find a user-defined function that is masking lm(). That could hang around from a previous R session if you defined one and saved the image on closing.

Second: Check the class of your input data. Then fix whichever variable should be numeric and isn't. (this is less likely as lm() returns a different error with non-numeric input).

S

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      jim holtman
    

    

      
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learn how to debug your program.  I think the call is:

options(error = recover)

don't have R on my iPad so cannot check.  When you do this, you drop into the 'browser' at which point you can examine the value and see that you have a non-numeric object.

Sent from my iPad

        
On Oct 10, 2012, at 6:12, S Ellison <S.Ellison at lgcgroup.com> wrote: