[R] aggregate example : where is the state.region variable?

[Martin Maechler]

>>>>> "Gabor" == Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck at gmail.com>
>>>>>     on Mon, 21 Aug 2006 21:03:49 -0400 writes:

    Gabor> It is worthwhile to note that what is being
    Gabor> illustrated here is aggregating a numeric matrix by a
    Gabor> factor using the aggregate.default method and, of
    Gabor> course, a factor can't be part of a numeric matrix.

    Gabor> Of course, that is not say that the examples could
    Gabor> not be improved in terms of clarity, simplicity and
    Gabor> comprehensiveness (there is no example of
    Gabor> aggregate.data.frame).

yes, thank you, Gabor ..... 
and we (the R developers) have accepted and incorporated
quite a few constructive proposals for improvement.

Just offending the original authors ("bloody ..") without adding
any constructive proposal for improvement doesn't really help.
You can always get the money back you paid for R.
You can also decide to leave this mailing list and get the money
back you paid for that service.  Unfortunately, we can't get the
time and energy back we've lost when dealing with such postings...

Martin Maechler, ETH Zurich

    Gabor> On 8/21/06, John Kane <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca> wrote:
    >>  --- Gabor Grothendieck <ggrothendieck at gmail.com> wrote:
    >> 
    >> > Its not part of state.x77.  Its a completely > separate
    >> variable.  > Try ls("package:datasets") and notice its in
    >> the > list > or try ?state.region and note that its a
    >> variable in > datasets.
    >> 
    >> Thanks. I was wondering if it was going something like
    >> that.
    >> 
    >> However, it is a bloody stupid example, at least to a
    >> newbie.  A call to another data.set in what is supposed
    >> to be a simple example is very confusing.
    >> 
    >> When someone is apparently illustrating a function with a
    >> simple one line command I don't expect them to call
    >> another data set, apparently create a new variable
    >> (Region), and use that new variable as the grouping
    >> variable without a word of explanation of what the
    >> example is doing.
    >> 
    >> If I sound a bit annoyed it is because I am. It might be
    >> nice to have an example illlustate the funtion,not do a
    >> couple of other undocumented things as well.
    >> >
    >> >
    >> > On 8/21/06, John Kane <jrkrideau at yahoo.ca> wrote: > > I
    >> was looking ?aggregate and ran the first example
    >> > >
    >> > > aggregate(state.x77, list(Region = state.region), > >
    >> mean)
    >> > >
    >> > > The variables in state.x77 appear to be : > > >
    >> state.x77 > > Population Income Illiteracy Life Exp
    >> Murder HS > Grad > > Frost Area
    >> > >
    >> > > Where is the "state.region" variable coming from?
    >> > >
    >> > > ______________________________________________ > >
    >> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > >
    >> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > > PLEASE
    >> do read the posting guide >
    >> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > > and
    >> provide commented, minimal, self-contained, >
    >> reproducible code.
    >> > >
    >> >
    >> 
    >> 
    >> __________________________________________________ Do You
    >> Yahoo!?  Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam
    >> protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
    >> 

    Gabor> ______________________________________________
    Gabor> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
    Gabor> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE
    Gabor> do read the posting guide
    Gabor> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and
    Gabor> provide commented, minimal, self-contained,
    Gabor> reproducible code.