[R] Function rank() for data frames (or multiple vectors)?

Sebastian Bauer sebastian.bauer at charite.de
Wed Aug 24 19:37:38 CEST 2011


Hi!

>>>> in R? Basically, what I need is a mixture of order() and rank().
>>>> While the former allows to specify multiple vectors, it doesn't
>>>> provide the flexibility of rank() such that I can specify what
>>>> happens if ties can not be broken.
>>> An example of this "simple problem" would clarify this greatly. I
>>> cannot tell what "flexibility" in 'rank' is missing in 'order'.
>>
>> Thanks for your answer. For instance, if I have two vectors such as
>>
>> 1 1
>> 1 2
>> 1 2
>> 1 3
>> 2 1
>>
>> that I want combinedly ranked. I'd like to get an output
>>
>> 1
>> 2
>> 2
>> 4
>> 5
>>
>> or (ties.method=average)
>>
>> 1
>> 2.5
>> 2.5
>> 4
>> 5
>>
>> Basically, I need a function similar to the rank() function that
>> accepts
>> more than one vector (as order() does).
> Can't you just paste the columns and run rank on the results? 'rank'
> accepts character vectors.

I was looking for an elegant solution ;) In the real case I have double
values and this would be quite inefficient then.

Best,
Sebastian



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