[R] change in read.spss, package foreign?

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Heinz" == Heinz Tuechler <tuechler at gmx.at>
>>>>>     on Fri, 09 Sep 2005 01:58:29 +0200 writes:

    Heinz> Dear All,
    Heinz> it seems to me that the function read.spss of package
    Heinz> foreign changed its behaviour regarding factors. I
    Heinz> noted that in version 0.8-8 variables with value
    Heinz> labels in SPSS were transformed in factors with the
    Heinz> labels in alphabetic order.

    Heinz> In version 0.8-10 they seem to be ordered preserving
    Heinz> the order corresponding to their numerical codes in
    Heinz> SPSS.  However I could not find a description of this
    Heinz> supposed change. Since the different behaviour seems
    Heinz> to depend on the installed version of the
    Heinz> foreign-package I don't know how to give a
    Heinz> reproducible example.  It also affects spss.get of
    Heinz> the Hmisc-package, which is not surprising.

    Heinz> I prefer the new behaviour and would like to know, if
    Heinz> it will persist in future versions.

Yes, it was on purpose.

Note that the development of "foreign" is also on
svn.R-project.org, and you can easily get at its 'ChangeLog' :

         https://svn.R-project.org/R-packages/trunk/foreign/ChangeLog

where you find the relevant entry at 2005-08-15 .

Regards,
Martin Maechler