[R] apply function to named numeric object

ONKELINX, Thierry Thierry.ONKELINX at inbo.be
Mon Aug 3 16:29:39 CEST 2009


Dear Paulo,

Your object is a named vector. Apply() and colMeans() only work on
matrices and dataframes. So you need to convert the vector to a matrix
or data.frame. See the example below. Please not that calculating the
mean of one element is a waiste of time.

# a named numerical vector
object <- c(x = 670, y = 314)
str(object)
class(object)

#a data frame with two numerical vectors.
object2 <- data.frame(x = 670, y = 314)
str(object2)
class(object2)
colMeans(object2)

HTH,

Thierry


------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
ir. Thierry Onkelinx
Instituut voor natuur- en bosonderzoek / Research Institute for Nature
and Forest
Cel biometrie, methodologie en kwaliteitszorg / Section biometrics,
methodology and quality assurance
Gaverstraat 4
9500 Geraardsbergen
Belgium
tel. + 32 54/436 185
Thierry.Onkelinx at inbo.be
www.inbo.be

To call in the statistician after the experiment is done may be no more
than asking him to perform a post-mortem examination: he may be able to
say what the experiment died of.
~ Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher

The plural of anecdote is not data.
~ Roger Brinner

The combination of some data and an aching desire for an answer does not
ensure that a reasonable answer can be extracted from a given body of
data.
~ John Tukey

-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org]
Namens Paulo Eduardo Cardoso
Verzonden: maandag 3 augustus 2009 16:19
Aan: David Winsemius
CC: [R]
Onderwerp: Re: [R] apply function to named numeric object

Both objects are numeric, but they differ in structure and I don't know
how to handle both with a single function to get means.
When I try to apply colMeans to a named numeric object like this:

Named num [1:2] 670 314
 - attr(*, "names")= chr [1:2] "x" "y"

I get the error messages:

Error in colMeans(centroid) :
  'x' must be an array of at least two dimensions

and apply(object,2,mean)

Error in apply(object, 2, mean) : dim(X) must have a positive length

There are something very basic that I'm missing.

2009/8/3 David Winsemius <dwinsemius at comcast.net>

>
> On Aug 3, 2009, at 9:52 AM, Paulo Eduardo Cardoso wrote:
>
> Thanks. Works
> A doubt.
>
> I asked that because I have a loop that can generate objects like that

> or this one
>
>
> str(object)
> Named num [1:2] 670 314
>  - attr(*, "names")= chr [1:2] "x" "y"
>
> To avoid using a ifelse() to calculate means of x and y, I'd like a 
> function that handle with this named numeric object and that list. Any

> chance of do it with a single function?
>
>
> I do not see any list object. Lists and arrays (of which the two 
> dimensional ones are of type "matrix") are quite different basic data 
> structures in R. If you interchange the use of those terms you will 
> not get useful replies from R users. Those two object both appear to 
> be matrices and both should be handled by those functions.
>
>
> 2009/8/3 David Winsemius <dwinsemius at comcast.net>
>
>>
>> On Aug 3, 2009, at 9:07 AM, Paulo Eduardo Cardoso wrote:
>>
>>  Maybe a very basic question.
>>> How can I get mean of a object like this
>>>
>>>  str(object)
>>>>
>>> num [1:53, 1:2] 734 734 736 734 736 ...
>>> - attr(*, "dimnames")=List of 2
>>>  ..$ : NULL
>>>  ..$ : chr [1:2] "x" "y"
>>>
>>> I want the mean of both x and y
>>>
>>
>> apply(object, 2, mean)
>>
>> or...
>>
>> colMeans(object)  # which will be faster
>>
>>
>>  _______________
>>> Paulo E. Cardoso
>>>
>>>        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>>>
>>> __________________________________________
>>>
>>
>
> David Winsemius, MD
> Heritage Laboratories
> West Hartford, CT
>
>


--
_______________
Paulo E. Cardoso

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

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