How to insert character strings in Summary function in R

Question

I thought the summary function in R could take character variables given the file it points to is numeric. bbb is giving me good results but the summary of aaa is giving me problems.

# Descriptives For Machine.x
for (n in 1:3500){
   machine_name = paste("machine.wt$Machine.", n, sep="")
   aaa = summary (paste("machine.wt$Machine.", n, sep=""))
   bbb = summary (machine.wt$Machine.1)
}

Error in x - mx : non-numeric argument to binary operator
In addition: Warning messages:
1: In mean.default(x, na.rm = na.rm) :
  argument is not numeric or logical: returning NA
2: In var(x, na.rm = na.rm) : NAs introduced by coercion
3: In mean.default(x, na.rm = na.rm, trim = trim) :
  argument is not numeric or logical: returning NA
4: In var(x, na.rm = na.rm) : NAs introduced by coercion
5: In mean.default(x) : argument is not numeric or logical: returning NA

My data is very simple:

Obs.1   Machine.1   Obs.1   Machine.2   Obs.2   Machine.3   Obs.3   Machine.4
1   302.3   1   302.8   1   315.1   1   300.9
2   295.3   2   314.3   2   306.7   2   317.5
3   301.4   3   308.4   3   309.0   3   304.3
4   318.2   4   295.2   4   321.3   4   293.2
5   320.4   5   313.5   5   326.4   5   308.0

James · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-12 18:37:54Z

1

How about using subset and grepl to avoid the loop altogether?

summary(subset(machine.wt,select=grepl("^Machine",names(machine.wt))))

answered Sep 12, 2012 at 18:37

James

67.1k14 gold badges158 silver badges200 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

mccurcio Over a year ago

I like both of these answers but I think I have to go with this one, cuz it bent my brain.

Greg Snow · Accepted Answer · 2012-09-12 18:36:46Z

0

See fortune(312) then try

summary( machine.wt[[ paste0('Machine.',n) ]] )

answered Sep 12, 2012 at 18:36

Greg Snow

49.9k6 gold badges86 silver badges114 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

How to insert character strings in Summary function in R

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

1 Comment

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related