[R] Converting matrix to data frame without losing an assigned dimname

[Paul Miller]

Hello All,

Would like to be able to convert a matrix to a dataframe without losing an assigned dimname.

Here is an example that should illustrate what I'm talking about.

tableData <- state.x77[c(7, 38, 20, 46), c(7, 1, 8)]
names(dimnames(tableData)) <- c("State", "")
tableData

State          Frost Population  Area
  Connecticut    139       3100  4862
  Pennsylvania   126      11860 44966
  Maryland       101       4122  9891
  Virginia        85       4981 39780

tableData <- as.data.frame(tableData)
tableData

             Frost Population  Area
Connecticut    139       3100  4862
Pennsylvania   126      11860 44966
Maryland       101       4122  9891
Virginia        85       4981 39780

Notice how "State" gets removed when converting to a dataframe. How can I get a dataframe with a separate column called "State" instead of having the state become the row.names? I can think of an ugly way to do it but suspect there must be something more elegant.

Thanks,

Paul