r, stuck on converting numeric to factor with labels

Question

I am stuck on this topic and I am new to R. I am trying to take this repetition pattern and assign levels using factor(), as.factor(), or levels() to assign levels to 1-5 such as 1 = yes, 2 =no, 3 =sometimes, 4 = almost never, 5 = almost always (these are for the purposes of this example only, I am aware that they do not make sense in terms of order). I am out of ideas. I have tried assigning the below code to a variable ex: x and making it as.factor(x) and then use:

x <- as.factor(x)
y <- factor(x, c('yes','no','sometimes','almost never', 'almost always')
#or y <-  factor(a, levels = c('yes','no','sometimes','almost never', 'almost always'), ordered = TRUE)

the output always gives me a bunch of NA values. I am trying to get R to convert 1-5 to the respective values and output yes < no < sometimes ,etc... in terms of providing an intrinsic order for my values/levels

code I have for the pattern this:

rep(c(1:5),each=3,times=4)

user2974951 · Accepted Answer · 2022-01-19 06:16:55Z

1

Almost had it, its labels not levels

factor(
  rep(c(1:5),each=3,times=4),
  levels = 1:5,
  labels = c('yes','no','sometimes','almost never', 'almost always'),
  ordered = TRUE
)

Edit: as Roland pointed out, including both levels and labels is safer.

edited Jan 19, 2022 at 6:16

answered Jan 19, 2022 at 6:04

user2974951

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5 Comments

Roland Over a year ago

It's safer to always specify also the levels when you specify labels. That makes the mapping explicit.

steveb Over a year ago

The code in its current state produces NA values for me; this was after you added the levels parameter.

user2974951 Over a year ago

@steveb My mistake, levels should include the current values, labels the new values.

steveb Over a year ago

@user2974951 It works now.

ineedhelp Over a year ago

thanks everyone for your help, I really appreciate it. the book I am using to learn R, I have learned on labels but only for ylab and xlab. Just wondering why my code was giving NA rather than factors?

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