Imported a csv-dataset to R but the values becomes factors

Question

I am very new to R and I am having trouble accessing a dataset I ve imported  I m using RStudio and used the Import Dataset function when importing my csv-file and pasted the line from the console-window to the source-window  The code looks as follows   setwd  c  kalle R   stuckey  lt - read csv  C  kalle R stuckey csv   point  lt - stuckey PTS time  lt - stuckey MP   However  the data isn t integer or numeric as I am used to but factors so when I try to plot the variables I only get histograms  not the usual plot  When checking the data it seems to be in order  just that I m unable to use it since it s in factor form

User · Answer

When importing csv data files the import command should reflect both the data seperation between each column (;) and the float-number seperator for your numeric values (for numerical variable = 2,5 this would be ",").

The command for importing a csv, therefore, has to be a bit more comprehensive with more commands:

    stuckey <- read.csv2("C:/kalle/R/stuckey.csv", header=TRUE, sep=";", dec=",")

This should import all variables as either integers or numeric.

User · Answer

By default  read csv checks the first few rows of your data to see whether to treat each variable as numeric  If it finds non-numeric values  it assumes the variable is character data  and character variables are converted to factors   It looks like the PTS and MP variables in your dataset contain non-numerics  which is why you re getting unexpected results  You can force these variables to numeric with  point  lt - as numeric as character point   time  lt - as numeric as character time     But any values that can t be converted will become missing   The R FAQ gives a slightly different method for factor -  numeric conversion but I can never remember what it is

User · Answer

None of these answers mention the colClasses argument which is another way to specify the variable classes in read csv    stuckey  lt - read csv  C  kalle R stuckey csv   colClasses    numeric     all variables to numeric   or you can specify which columns to convert   stuckey  lt - read csv  C  kalle R stuckey csv   colClasses   c  PTS     numeric    MP     numeric     specific columns to numeric   Note that if a variable can t be converted to numeric then it will be converted to factor as default which makes it more difficult to convert to number  Therefore  it can be advisable just to read all variables in as  character  colClasses    character  and then convert the specific columns to numeric once the csv is read in   stuckey  lt - read csv  C  kalle R stuckey csv   colClasses    character   point  lt - as numeric stuckey PTS  time  lt - as numeric stuckey MP

User · Answer

Both the data import function  here  read csv    as well as a global option offer you to say stringsAsFactors FALSE which should fix this

User · Answer

for me the solution was to include skip   0   number of rows to skip at the top of the file   Can be set  0   mydata  lt - read csv file    file csv    header   TRUE  sep        skip   22

User · Answer

I m new to R as well and faced the exact same problem  But then I looked at my data and noticed that it is being caused due to the fact that my csv file was using a comma separator     in all numeric columns  Ex  1 233 444 56 instead of 1233444 56    I removed the comma separator in my csv file and then reloaded into R  My data frame now recognises all columns as numbers   I m sure there s a way to handle this within the read csv function itself

User · Answer

This only worked right for me when including strip white   TRUE in the read csv command    I found the solution here

User · Answer

You can set this globally for all read csv read   commands with   options stringsAsFactors F    Then read the file as follows   my tab  lt - read table   filename csv   as is T

[r] Imported a csv-dataset to R but the values becomes factors

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