Select column numbers only from table in R

Question

I am new using R, and I have a problem when reading data. I am reading a .csv file:

table<- read.table("/Users/.../data.plants.csv", header=FALSE, sep=";")

The table has the format:

      V1              V2                    V3         V4         V5     V6        V7        V8

1 nutrient light microsatellite_length genotype_A genotype_B height leaf_type leaf_size

2 rich bright 4 AA Bb 48.5 rough 10.43

3 rich bright 2 Aa Bb 47 smooth 6.54

....(continues)

I want to just select one column, the column that has leaf size. I am doing it like this:

x<-subset(table,select=c(V8))

It has a problem, it also selects the header ("leaf_size") and I want just the numeric values. How can I select just the column numeric values?

Use header=TRUE in your read.table call. Or just use read.csv as it defaults to this. — James
– James, Commented Feb 13, 2012 at 17:06
I'll put it as an answer then, so people can see that its solved. — James
– James, Commented Feb 13, 2012 at 17:29

James · Accepted Answer · 2012-02-13 17:30:43Z

1

Use header=TRUE in your read.table call. Or just use read.csv as it defaults to this.

plants <- read.csv("/Users/.../data.plants.csv")

answered Feb 13, 2012 at 17:30

James

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Michael Petrotta · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-17 00:45:17Z

0

To add to the first answer, by default, read.csv results in strings being classified as factors. If you do not want this (and generally, you don't), one uses:

read.table('plants.csv', stringsAsFactors=FALSE, sep=';') -> plants
plants[,6]

will then give you the sixth column as strings. I'll assume you want it as numbers, given by as.numeric(plants[,6]). Hope that helps!

edited Dec 17, 2013 at 0:45

Michael Petrotta

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answered Feb 13, 2012 at 17:38

hd1

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