[R] Stucked with as.numeric function

[David Winsemius]

On Mar 21, 2011, at 1:57 PM, patsko at gmx.de wrote:

> Hi list,
>
> I have problems with the as.numeric function. I have imported  
> probabilities from external data, but they are classified as factors  
> as str() shows. Therefore my goal is to convert the colum from  
> factor to numeric level with keeping the decimals.
>
> I have googled the problem for a while now and kept to several   
> advices like http://cran.r-project.org/doc/FAQ/R-FAQ.html#How-do-I-convert-factors-to-numeric_003f 
>  and history from the list but it is impossible for me to convert  
> the data to numeric without rounding or ranking the values.

Are you sure about rounding? The console display of numbers is  
determined by options that can be changed:

?options

The "ranking" may represent an error on your part. You offer nothing  
that can be used to check your interpretations. Why not offer:

dput(head(data_object))


>
> E.g.:
> Simply using as.numeric puts the values into ranked classes as  
> explained in the manual,
> As.numeric(as.character(probas)) as well as as.numeric(levels(probas 
> $forecast_probs))[as.integer(probas$forecast_probs)]
> return “NA” for every row.

Then maybe they were NA to begin with?

Have you tried importing with colClasses set to "numeric" for the  
columns you knew to be such?
>

-- 

David Winsemius, MD
Heritage Laboratories
West Hartford, CT