[R] rbind() of factors in data.frame [Broadcast]

[Raubertas, Richard]

Please, no.  It is already annoying enough that levels are sorted 
when creating a factor.  Don't compound it by extending this to 
other functions.

In concept the order of the levels of a factor is irrelevant (although
in practice it makes a big difference, e.g. when plotting).  If so,
then why is alphabetic order preferred over any other?  Why not leave
them in the order the user provided?

Rich Raubertas
Merck & Co.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at stat.math.ethz.ch] On Behalf Of 
> Albrecht, Dr. Stefan (AZ Private Equity Partner)
> Sent: Thursday, April 19, 2007 11:39 AM
> To: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch
> Subject: [R] rbind() of factors in data.frame [Broadcast]
> 
> Dear all,
>  
> I would like to inquire, if it is a desired feature that the 
> combination with rbind() of two data frames with factors 
> columns does not sort the factors levels of the combined data frame.
>  
> > str(rbind(data.frame(a = factor(c(4, 3))), data.frame(a = 
> factor(c(2, 1)))))
> 'data.frame':   4 obs. of  1 variable:
>  $ a: Factor w/ 4 levels "3","4","1","2": 2 1 4 3
>  
> I would expect the combined factor levels to be sorted, as 
> long as both factors are not ordered.
>  
> With many thanks and best regards,
> Stefan
>  
>  
> ____________________________________
> Dr. Stefan Albrecht, CFA
> Allianz Private Equity Partners GmbH
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