use variable name instead of column name in R function

Question

In this:

y <- svytable(~date4a, design = Pew.w)

date4a is a column name.

I want to replace date4a with a variable. The variable of course, will refer to a column name.

E.g. something like:

col <- "date4a"

y <- svytable(~col, design = Pew.w)   #This doesnt' work

How may I do that?

In my opinion, don't. Youre only making your work harder to understand by breaking mental models of how R works. — Matthew Drury
– Matthew Drury, Commented Nov 22, 2016 at 1:48
This is an R coding question, not a question about statistics. It is off topic here, but should be on topic on Stack Overflow. If you wait, we will migrate it for you. — gung - Reinstate Monica
– gung - Reinstate Monica, Commented Nov 22, 2016 at 2:12

gung - Reinstate Monica · Accepted Answer · 2016-11-22 02:14:49Z

2

Under the assumption that this is something that is really worth doing, you could try:

col <- my.data.frame$date4a
y   <- svytable(~col, design=Pew.w)

answered Nov 22, 2016 at 2:14

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