[R] Why copying columns of a data.frame becomes numeric?

[Berend Hasselman]

On 12-04-2013, at 21:32, C W <tmrsg11 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear list,
> 
> I want the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th columns of mtcars.  After copying them,
> the columns become numeric class rather than data frame.
> 
> But, when I copy rows, they data frame retains its class.  Why is this?  I
> don't see why copying rows vs columns is so different.
> 
>> class(mtcars)
> [1] "data.frame"
>> head(mtcars)
>                   mpg cyl disp  hp drat    wt  qsec vs am gear carb
> Mazda RX4         21.0   6  160 110 3.90 2.620 16.46  0  1    4    4
> Mazda RX4 Wag     21.0   6  160 110 3.90 2.875 17.02  0  1    4    4
> Datsun 710        22.8   4  108  93 3.85 2.320 18.61  1  1    4    1
> Hornet 4 Drive    21.4   6  258 110 3.08 3.215 19.44  1  0    3    1
> Hornet Sportabout 18.7   8  360 175 3.15 3.440 17.02  0  0    3    2
> Valiant           18.1   6  225 105 2.76 3.460 20.22  1  0    3    1
>> a <- mtcars$mpg
>> class(a)
> [1] "numeric"

Here you are assigning a single column of mtcars, which is a numeric vector, to another object. So that is a numeric vector.

>> b <- mtcars[1:5, ]
>> class(b)
> [1] "data.frame"
> 

Here you are assigning a couple of rows of the complete dataframe and the result is a dataframe.

If you want the  1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th columns of mtcars in a new datafrmae why don't you do this:

 a <- mtcars[,c(1,2,5,6)]

then

> class(a)
[1] "data.frame"


Berend