Assigning results of a for loop to an empty matrix - r

Question

I have another question for the brilliant minds out there (this site is so addictive).
I am running some simulations on a matrix and I have nested for loops for this purpose. The first creates a vector that increases by one each time a loop cycles. The nested loop is running simulations by randomizing the vector, attaching it to the matrix, and calculating some simple properties on the new matrix. (For an example, I used properties that will not vary in the simulations, but in practice I require the simulations to get a good idea of the impact of the randomized vector.) The nested loop runs 100 simulations, and ultimately I want only the column means of those simulations.
Here's some example code:
property<-function(mat){ #where mat is a matrix
a=sum(mat)
b=sum(colMeans(mat))
c=mean(mat)
d=sum(rowMeans(mat))
e=nrow(mat)*ncol(mat)
answer=list(a,b,c,d,e)
return(answer)
}
x=matrix(c(1,0,1,0, 0,1,1,0, 0,0,0,1, 1,0,0,0, 1,0,0,1), byrow=T, nrow=5, ncol=4)
obj=matrix(nrow=100,ncol=5,byrow=T) #create an empty matrix to dump results into
for(i in 1:ncol(x)){ #nested for loops
a=rep(1,times=i) #repeat 1 for 1:# columns in x
b=rep(0,times=(ncol(x)-length(a))) #have the rest of the vector be 0
I.vec=append(a,b) #append these two for the I vector
for (j in 1:100){
I.vec2=sample(I.vec,replace=FALSE) #randomize I vector
temp=rbind(x,I.vec2)
prop<-property(temp)
obj[[j]]<-prop
}
write.table(colMeans(obj), 'myfile.csv', quote = FALSE, sep = ',', row.names = FALSE)
}
The problem I am encountering is how to fill in the empty object matrix with the results of the nested loop. obj ends up as a vector of mostly NAs, so it is clear that I am not assigning the results properly. I want each cycle to add a row of prop to obj, but if I try
obj[j,]<-prop
R tells me that there is an incorrect number of subscripts on the matrix.
Thank you so much for your help!
EDITS:
Okay, so here is the improved code re the answers below:
property<-function(mat){ #where mat is a matrix
a=sum(mat)
b=sum(colMeans(mat))
f=mean(mat)
d=sum(rowMeans(mat))
e=nrow(mat)*ncol(mat)
answer=c(a,b,f,d,e)
return(answer)
}
x=matrix(c(1,0,1,0, 0,1,1,0, 0,0,0,1, 1,0,0,0, 1,0,0,1), byrow=T, nrow=5, ncol=4)
obj<-data.frame(a=0,b=0,f=0,d=0,e=0) #create an empty dataframe to dump results into
obj2<-data.frame(a=0,b=0,f=0,d=0,e=0)
for(i in 1:ncol(x)){ #nested for loops
a=rep(1,times=i) #repeat 1 for 1:# columns in x
b=rep(0,times=(ncol(x)-length(a))) #have the rest of the vector be 0
I.vec=append(a,b) #append these two for the I vector
for (j in 1:100){
I.vec2=sample(I.vec,replace=FALSE) #randomize I vector
temp=rbind(x,I.vec2)
obj[j,]<-property(temp)
}
obj2[i,]<-colMeans(obj)
write.table(obj2, 'myfile.csv', quote = FALSE,
sep = ',', row.names = FALSE, col.names=F, append=T)
}
However, this is still glitchy, as the myfile should only have four rows (one for each column of x), but actually has 10 rows, with some repeated. Any ideas?

Answer 1

Your property function is returning a list. If you want to store the numbers in a matrix, you should have it return a numeric vector:
property <- function(mat)
{
....
c(a, b, c, d, e) # probably a good idea to rename your "c" variable
}
Alternatively, instead of defining obj to be a matrix, make it a data.frame (which conceptually makes more sense, as each column represents a different quantity).
obj <- data.frame(a=0, b=0, c=0, ...)
for(i in 1:ncol(x))
....
obj[j, ] <- property(temp)
Finally, note that your call to write.table will overwrite the contents of myfile.csv, so the only output it will contain is the result for the last iteration of i.

Answer 2

Use rbind:
obj <- rbind(obj, prop)