Recoding over multiple data frames in R - r

(edited to reflect help...I'm not doing great with formatting, but appreciate the feedback)
I'm a bit stuck on what I suspect is an easy enough problem. I have multiple different data sets that I have loaded into R, all of which have different numbers of observations, but all of which have two variables named "A1," "A2," and "A3". I want to create a new variable in each of the three data frames that contains the value held in "A1" if A3 contains a value greater than zero, and the value held in "A2" if A3 contains a value less than zero. Seems simple enough, right?
My attempt at this code uses this faux-data:
set.seed(1)
A1=seq(1,100,length=100)
A2=seq(-100,-1,length=100)
A3=runif(100,-1,1)
df1=cbind(A1,A2,A3)
A3=runif(100,-1,1)
df2=cbind(A1,A2,A3)
I'm about a thousand percent sure that R has some functionality for creating the same named variable in multiple data frames, but I have tried doing this with lapply:
mylist=list(df1,df2)
lapply(mylist,function(x){
x$newVar=x$A1
x$newVar[x$A3>0]=x$A2[x$A3>0]
return(x)
})
But the newVar is not available for me once I leave the lapply loop. For example, if I ask for the mean of the new variable:
mean(df1$newVar)
[1] NA
Warning message:
In mean.default(df1$newVar) :
argument is not numeric or logical: returning NA
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you.

Well first of all, df1 and df2 are not data.frames but matrices (the dollar syntax doesn't work on matrices).
In fact, if you do:
set.seed(1)
A1=seq(1,100,length=100)
A2=seq(-100,-1,length=100)
A3=runif(100,-1,1)
df1=as.data.frame(cbind(A1,A2,A3))
A3=runif(100,-1,1)
df2=as.data.frame(cbind(A1,A2,A3))
mylist=list(df1,df2)
lapply(mylist,function(x){
x$newVar=x$A1
x$newVar[x$A3>0]=x$A2
})
the code almost works but gives some warnings. In fact, there's still an error in the last line of the function called by lapply. If you change it like this, it works as expected:
lapply(mylist,function(x){
x$newVar=x$A1
x$newVar[x$A3>0]=x$A2[x$A3>0] # you need to subset x$A2 otherwise it's too long
return(x) # better to state explicitly what's the return value
})
EDIT (as per comment):
as basically always happens in R, functions do not mutate existing objects but return brand new objects.
So, in this case df1 and df2 are still the same but lapply returns a list with the expected 2 new data.frames i.e. :
resultList <- lapply(mylist,function(x){
x$newVar=x$A1
x$newVar[x$A3>0]=x$A2[x$A3>0]
return(x)
})
newDf1 <- resultList[[1]]
newDf2 <- resultList[[2]]

Related

Problems with renaming columns via variables in R

I'm having issues with a specific problem I have a dataset of a ton of matrices that all have V1 as their column names, essentially NULL. I'm trying to write a loop to replace all of these with column names from a list but I'm running into some issues.
To break this down to the most simple form, this code isn't functioning as I'd expect it to.
nameofmatrix <- paste('column_', i, sep = "")
colnames(eval(as.name(nameofmatrix))) <- c("test")
I would expect this to take the value of column_1 for example, and replace (in the 2nd line) with "test" as the column name.
I tried to break this down smaller, for example, if I run print(eval(as.name(nameofmatrix)) I get the object's column/rows printed as expected and if I run print(colnames(eval(as.name(nameofmatrix))) I'm getting NULL as expected for the column header (since it was set as V1).
I've even tried to manually type in the column name, such as colnames(column_1) <- c("test) and this successfully works to rename the column. But once this variable is put in the text's place as shown above, it does not work the same. I'm having difficulties finding a solution on how to rename several matrix columns after they have been created with this method. Does anyone have any advice or suggestions?
Note, the error I'm receiving on trying to run this is
Error in eval([as.name](nameofmatrix)) <- \`vtmp\` : could not find function "eval<-"
We could return the values of the objects in a list with get (if there are multiple objects use mget, then rename the objects in the list and update those objects in the global env with list2env
list2env(lapply(mget(nameofmatrix), function(x) {colnames(x) <- newnames
x}), .GlobalEnv)
It can also be done with assign
data(mtcars)
nameofobject <- 'mtcars'
assign(nameofobject, `colnames<-`(get(nameofobject),
c('mpg1', names(mtcars)[-1])))
Now, check the names of 'mtcars'
names(mtcars)[1]
#[1] "mpg1"

R - Unexpected behavior when typechecking columns of tidyverse data frame

I'm working with some data that has hundreds of covariates, so I decided to write some functions to make pre-processing much faster and cleaner (like scaling certain numeric variables). An important part of all of these functions is type-checking the columns before I apply a particular function to them.
Here is my function for scaling continuous columns:
# rm (vector): names of columns not to be scaled
scale.continuous <- function(df, rm=NULL) {
cols <- setdiff(colnames(df), rm)
for(col in cols) {
if(is.numeric(df[,col])){
df[,col] <- as.numeric(scale(df[,col]))
}
}
df
}
This works perfectly fine if I load the data frame using read.csv(), but the data I have is huge so the speed boost of using read_csv() from readr/tidyverse is significant. Unfortunately, if I load my data using read_csv() all of my functions break.
I narrowed down the issue to the type-checking, specifically when type-checking a column I am accessing by a string of its column name. Here's some code to demonstrate what I mean:
# When using read.csv()
> is.numeric(df$col)
[1] TRUE
> is.numeric(df[,"col"])
[1] TRUE
# When using read_csv()
> is.numeric(df$col)
[1] TRUE
> is.numeric(df[,"col"])
[1] FALSE
I realized the issue here was that indexing the dataframe with a string the way I do above returns a tibble instead of a regular list like other methods of indexing do. What I don't understand is why this behavior exists, why as.numeric() (or any type-check) does not work with a tibble and in general why there is this difference in the way the default and tidyverse dataframes are constructed. Also, it would be nice to know if there is a parameter I can change in read_csv() that will make the behavior of this type of indexing the same as with a default dataframe.
I should mention, I realize there are probably better ways of writing this code (for example, just using df$"col" to index fixes the issue), but I still don't understand what the root of the issue was with my first approach. I am now working with much larger data sets that require much more involved pre-processing than what I have been used to in the past so I want to have as complete an understanding of the data structures I am using as possible.
Tibbles have a slightly different default behaviour than regular data frames when using the [ extracting function which can be a bit of a gotcha. Specifically df[,"col"] on a tibble will return a one column tibble whereas on a regular data frame it will return a vector. So you need to use:
df[["col"]]
Or explicitly state that you want to coerce to the lowest dimension and do:
df[, "col", drop = TRUE]
From the documentation:
df[, j] returns a tibble; it does not automatically extract the column
inside. df[, j, drop = FALSE] is the default.

How to transfer multiple columns into numeric & find correlation coefficients

I have a dataset "res.sav" that I read in via haven. It contains 20 columns, called "Genes1_Acc4", "Genes2_Acc4" etc. I am trying to find a correlation coefficient between those and another column called "Condition". I want to separately list all coefficients.
I created two functions, cor.condition.cols and cor.func to do that. The first iterates through the filenames and works just fine. The second was supposed to give me my correlations which didn't work at all. I also created a new "cor.condition.Genes" which I would like to fill with the correlations, ideally as a matrix or dataframe.
I have tried to iterate through the columns with two functions. However, when I try to pass it, I get the error: "NAs introduced by conversion". This wouldn't be the end of the world (I tried also suppressWarning()). But the bigger problem I have that it seems like my function does not convert said columns into the numeric type I need for my cor() function. I receive the "y must be numeric" error when trying to run the cor() function. I tried to put several arguments within and without '' or "" without success.
When I ran str(cor.condition.cols) I only receive character strings, which makes me think that my function somehow messes up with the as.numeric function. Any suggestions of how else I could iter through these columns and transfer them?
Thanks guys :)
cor.condition.cols <- lapply(1:20, function(x){paste0("res$Genes", x, "_Acc4")})
#save acc_4 columns as numeric columns and calculate correlations
res <- (as.numeric("cor.condition.cols"))
cor.func <- function(x){
cor(res$Condition, x, use="complete.obs", method="pearson")
}
cor.condition.Genes <- cor.func(cor.condition.cols)
You can do:
cor.condition.cols <- paste0("Genes", 1:20, "_Acc4")
res2 <- as.numeric(as.matrix(res[cor.condition.cols]))
cor.condition.Genes <- cor(res2, res$Condition, use="complete.obs", method="pearson")
eventually the short variant:
cor.condition.cols <- paste0("Genes", 1:20, "_Acc4")
cor.condition.Genes <- cor(res[cor.condition.cols], res$Condition, use="complete.obs")
Here is an example with other data:
cor(iris[-(4:5)], iris[[4]])

Making list of factors in a function but return warning error

Let say that I have these vectors:
time <- c(306,455,1010,210,883,1022,310,361,218,166)
status <- c(1,1,0,1,1,0,1,1,1,1)
gender <- c(1,1,1,1,1,1,2,2,1,1)
And I turn it into these data frame:
dataset <- data.frame(time, status, gender)
I want to list the factors in the third column using this function (p/s: pardon the immaturity. I'm still learning):
getFactor<-function(dataset){
result <- list()
result["Factors"] <- unique(dataset[[3]])
return(result)
}
And all I get is this:
getFactor(dataset)
$Factors
[1] 1
Warning message:
In result["Factors"] <- unique(dataset[[3]]) :
number of items to replace is not a multiple of replacement length
I tried using levels, but all I get is an empty list. My question is (1) why does this happen? and (2) is there any other way that I can get the list of the factor in a function?
Solution is simple, you just need double brackets around "Factors" :)
In the function
result[["Factors"]] <- unique(dataset[[3]])
That should be the line.
The double brackets return an element, single brackets return that selection as a list.
Sounds silly, by try this
test <- list()
class(test["Factors"])
class(test[["Factors"]])
The first class will be of type 'list'. The second will be of type 'NULL'. This is because the single brackets returns a subset as a list, and the double brackets return the element itself. It's useful depending on the scenario. The element in this case is "NULL" because nothing has been assigned to it.
The error "number of items to replace is not a multiple of replacement length" is because you've asked it to put 3 things into a single element (that element is a list). When you use double brackets you actually put it inside a list, where you can have multiple elements, so it can work!
Hope that makes sense!
Currently, when you create your data frame, dataset$gender is double vector (which R will automatically do if everything in it is numbers). If you want it to be a factor, you can declare it that way at the beginning:
dataset <- data.frame(time, status, gender = as.factor(gender))
Or coerce it to be a factor later:
dataset$gender <- as.factor(gender)
Then getting a vector of the levels is simple, without writing a function:
level_vector <- levels(dataset$gender)
level_vector
You're also subsetting lists & data frames incorrectly in your function. To call the third column of dataset, use dataset[,3]. The first element of a list is called by list[[1]]

R warning message - invalid factor level, NA generated

I have the following block of code. I am a complete beginner in R (a few days old) so I am not sure how much of the code will I need to share to counter my problem. So here is all of it I have written.
mdata <- read.csv("outcome-of-care-measures.csv",colClasses = "character")
allstate <- unique(mdata$State)
allstate <- allstate[order(allstate)]
spldata <- split(mdata,mdata$State)
if (num=="best") num <- 1
ranklist <- data.frame("hospital" = character(),"state" = character())
for (i in seq_len(length(allstate))) {
if (outcome=="heart attack"){
pdata <- spldata[[i]]
pdata[,11] <- as.numeric(pdata[,11])
bestof <- pdata[!is.na(as.numeric(pdata[,11])),][]
inorder <- order(bestof[,11],bestof[,2])
if (num=="worst") num <- nrow(bestof)
hospital <- bestof[inorder[num],2]
state <- allstate[i]
ranklist <- rbind(ranklist,c(hospital,state))
}
}
allstate is a character vector of states.
outcome can have values similar to "heart attack"
num will be numeric or "best" or "worst"
I want to create a data frame ranklist which will have hospital names and the state names which follow a certain criterion.
However I keep getting the error
invalid factor level, NA generated
I know it has something to do with rbind but I cannot figure out what is it. I have tried googling about this, and also tried troubleshooting using other similar queries on this site too. I have checked any of my vectors I am trying to bind are not factors. I also tried forcing the coercion by setting the hospital and state as.character() during assignment, but didn't work.
I would be grateful for any help.
Thanks in advance!
Since this is apparently from a Coursera assignment I am not going to give you a solution but I am going to hint at it: Have a look at the help pages for read.csv and data.frame. Both have the argument stringsAsFactors. What is the default, true or false? Do you want to keep the default setting? Is colClasses = "character" in line 1 necessary? Use the str function to check what the classes of the columns in mdata and ranklist are. read.csv additionally has an na.strings argument. If you use it correctly, also the NAs introduced by coercion warning will disappear and line 16 won't be necessary.
Finally, don't grow a matrix or data frame inside a loop if you know the final size beforehand. Initialize it with the correct dimensions (here 52 x 2) and assign e.g. the i-th hospital to the i-th row and first column of the data frame. That way rbind is not necessary.
By the way you did not get an error but a warning. R didn't interrupt the loop it just let you know that some values have been coerced to NA. You can also simplify the seq_len statement by using seq_along instead.

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