[R] error using by(goop[, c("a", "b", "c")], goop[, "Arm"], mySD) was Re: by gives no results, gives warning that data are non-numeric, but the data appears to be numeric.

[William Dunlap]

sapply's FUN argument must be a function (or a character string naming
a function) and sqrt(var(x)) evaluates to a number, not a function.
  mySD <- function(x) {sapply(x,function(x)sqrt(var(x)))}
would work, but I like to make it
  mySD <- function(x) {sapply(x,function(xi)sqrt(var(xi)))}
to make it clear to the user that the 'x's in the first function
have 2 different meanings.


Bill Dunlap
TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com

On Mon, Dec 28, 2015 at 1:54 PM, John Sorkin <jsorkin at grecc.umaryland.edu>
wrote:

>
> I am  trying to use the by function to get the SD of each column of a data
> frame, stratified by ARM. Using a suggestion provided by both William
> Dunlap and Rolf Turner, I have written the code below which fails with the
> error:
> Error in match.fun(FUN) :   'sqrt(var(x))' is not a function, character or
> symbol
>
>
> code:
> mySD <- function(x) {sapply(x,sqrt(var(x)))}
> class(mySD)
> by(goop[,c("a","b","c")],goop[,"Arm"],mySD)
>
> Below I include code which will create goop (thank you Bill for suggesting
> I use dput), which will run will recreate mmy error. Any thoughts on why
> the by function fails and how to fix it would be appreciated.
>
> Thank you,
> John
>
> goop <- structure(c(180L, 153L, 149L, 218L, 217L, 147L, 141L, 141L, 174L,
>                     162L, 163L, 206L, 168L, 227L, 142L, 179L, 270L, 206L,
> 243L, 134L,
>                     131L, 222L, 142L, 119L, 149L, 190L, 196L, 145L, 185L,
> 235L, 165L,
>                     246L, 152L, 186L, 222L, 248L, 125L, 149L, 233L, 145L,
> 154L, 231L,
>                     146L, 161L, 150L, 133L, 115L, 145L, 180L, 202L, 158L,
> 210L, 153L,
>                     136L, 265L, 255L, 199L, 131L, 110L, 169L, 147L, 133L,
> 108L, 203L,
>                     185L, 153L, 154L, 207L, 167L, 233L, 135L, 127L, 197L,
> 245L, 124L,
>                     125L, 146L, 139L, 158L, 211L, 183L, 169L, 137L, 114L,
> 176L, 143L,
>                     156L, 209L, 163L, 194L, 151L, 238L, 253L, 293L, 208L,
> 147L, 186L,
>                     179L, 150L, 203L, 112L, 185L, 156L, 127L, 132L, 243L,
> 177L, 242L,
>                     144L, 140L, 194L, 249L, 109L, 91L, 10163L, 10987L,
> 19882L, 19899L,
>                     20104L, 20105L, 20167L, 20318L, 20338L, 20392L,
> 20453L, 20454L,
>                     20467L, 20500L, 20682L, 20687L, 20692L, 20744L,
> 20750L, 20751L,
>                     20806L, 20848L, 20856L, 20959L, 21023L, 21048L,
> 21114L, 21134L,
>                     21135L, 21320L, 21329L, 21349L, 21353L, 21521L,
> 21663L, 21784L,
>                     22031L, 22081L, 2L, 2L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 1L,
> 1L, 2L, 2L,
>                     2L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 2L, 2L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 1L,
> 1L, 2L, 1L,
>                     2L, 1L, 2L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 1L, 2L, 2L), .Dim = c(38L,
> 5L), .Dimnames = list(
>                       NULL, c("a", "b", "c", "ID", "Arm")), na.action =
> structure(37, class = "omit"))
> goop
> mySD <- function(x) {sapply(x,sqrt(var(x)))}
> class(mySD)
> by(goop[,c("a","b","c")],goop[,"Arm"],mySD)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> John David Sorkin M.D., Ph.D.
> Professor of Medicine
> Chief, Biostatistics and Informatics
> University of Maryland School of Medicine Division of Gerontology and
> Geriatric Medicine
> Baltimore VA Medical Center
> 10 North Greene Street
> GRECC (BT/18/GR)
> Baltimore, MD 21201-1524
> (Phone) 410-605-7119
> (Fax) 410-605-7913 (Please call phone number above prior to faxing)
>
> Confidentiality Statement:
> This email message, including any attachments, is for ...{{dropped:16}}