How to convert entire dataframe to numeric while preserving decimals

Question

I have a mixed class dataframe  numeric and factor  where I am trying to convert the entire data frame to numeric   The following illustrates the type of data I am working with as well as the problem I am encountering    gt  a   as factor c 0 01 0 02 0 03 0 04    gt  b   c 2 4 5 7   gt  df1   data frame a b   gt  class df1 a   1   factor   gt  class df1 b   1   numeric    When I try and convert the entire data frame to numeric  it alters the numeric values   For example    gt  df2   as data frame sapply df1  as numeric    gt  class df2 a   1   numeric   gt  df2   a b 1 1 2 2 2 4 3 3 5 4 4 7   Previous posts on this site suggest using as numeric as character df1 a    which works great for one column   However  I need to apply this approach to a dataframe that may contain hundreds of columns     What are my options for converting an entire dataframe from factor to numeric  while preserving the numeric decimal values   The following is the output I would like to produce where a and b are numeric        a b 1 0 01 2 2 0 02 4 3 0 03 5 4 0 04 7     I have read the following related posts  although none of them apply directly to this case    How to convert a factor variable to numeric while preserving the numbers in R This references a single column in a dataframe  converting from a character to a numeric data frame   This post does not take into account decimal values  How can i convert a factor column that contains decimal numbers to numeric    This applies to only one column in a data frame

User · Answer

gt  df2  lt - data frame sapply df1  function x  as numeric as character x      gt  df2      a b 1 0 01 2 2 0 02 4 3 0 03 5 4 0 04 7  gt  sapply df2  class          a         b   numeric   numeric

User · Answer

You might need to do some checking   You cannot safely convert factors directly to numeric   as character must be applied first   Otherwise  the factors will be converted to their numeric storage values   I would check each column with is factor then coerce to numeric as necessary   df1    lt - lapply df1  function x        if is factor x   as numeric as character x   else x    sapply df1  class            a         b     numeric   numeric

User · Answer

df2  lt - data frame apply df1  2  function x  as numeric as character x

User · Answer

Using dplyr  a bit like sapply       df2  lt - mutate all df1  function x  as numeric as character x      which gives   glimpse df2  Observations  4 Variables  2   a  lt dbl gt  0 01  0 02  0 03  0 04   b  lt dbl gt  2  4  5  7   from your df1 which was   glimpse df1  Observations  4 Variables  2   a  lt fctr gt  0 01  0 02  0 03  0 04   b  lt dbl gt  2  4  5  7

[r] How to convert entire dataframe to numeric while preserving decimals?

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