on 07/02/2008 02:10 PM R_Learner wrote:
raw <- read.csv(file=filename, head=TRUE,sep=",")
I've read in a csv file, and I'm looking to access a column whose name is
held in a string.

For example, I want to access raw$one or raw$two, but this will depending on
the string. Let's say that the string is decision<-"one". How would I access
raw$one?

The following doesn't work:
numbers<-raw$decision

Please help me!
Thanks!


> str(iris)
'data.frame':   150 obs. of  5 variables:
 $ Sepal.Length: num  5.1 4.9 4.7 4.6 5 5.4 4.6 5 4.4 4.9 ...
 $ Sepal.Width : num  3.5 3 3.2 3.1 3.6 3.9 3.4 3.4 2.9 3.1 ...
 $ Petal.Length: num  1.4 1.4 1.3 1.5 1.4 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.5 ...
 $ Petal.Width : num  0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 ...
$ Species : Factor w/ 3 levels "setosa","versicolor",..: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...


MyCol <- "Petal.Length"


# Use column indexing
> iris[, MyCol]
  [1] 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.5 1.4 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.5 1.6 1.4 1.1 1.2 1.5
 [17] 1.3 1.4 1.7 1.5 1.7 1.5 1.0 1.7 1.9 1.6 1.6 1.5 1.4 1.6 1.6 1.5
...

# Use list indexing. A data frame is a list...
> iris[[MyCol]]
  [1] 1.4 1.4 1.3 1.5 1.4 1.7 1.4 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.5 1.6 1.4 1.1 1.2 1.5
 [17] 1.3 1.4 1.7 1.5 1.7 1.5 1.0 1.7 1.9 1.6 1.6 1.5 1.4 1.6 1.6 1.5


# Use subset()
> subset(iris, select = MyCol)
    Petal.Length
1            1.4
2            1.4
3            1.3
4            1.5
5            1.4
...


See ?"[.data.frame" and ?subset


HTH,

Marc Schwartz

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