As Peter pointed out.
data loads data from packages. Various formats are supported. The package author(s) will decide how best to ship (and load) any such data. When you call `data(iris)`, it loads iris as it is defined in the datasets package The definition can be seen here: https://github.com/wch/r-source/blob/trunk/src/library/datasets/data/iris.R You will note that Species is explicitly a factor and it won't have been read in by read.table, but by being "source()d" because it is a .R file. Michael ________________________________________ From: R-devel [r-devel-boun...@r-project.org] on behalf of Cook, Malcolm [m...@stowers.org] Sent: Friday, 19 February 2016 11:03 AM To: 'peter dalgaard' Cc: r-de...@stat.math.ethz.ch Subject: Re: [Rd] should `data` respect default.stringsAsFactors()? Hi Peter, Sorry if I was not clear. Perhaps an example will make my point: > data(iris) > class(iris$Species) [1] "factor" > write.table(iris,'data/myiris.tab') > data(myiris) > class(myiris$Species) [1] "factor" > rm(myiris) > options(stringsAsFactors = FALSE) > data(myiris) > class(myiris$Species) [1] "factor" > myiris<-read.table("data/myiris.tab",header=TRUE) > class(myiris$Species) [1] "character" I am surprised to find that in the above setting the global option stringsAsFactors = FALSE does NOT effect how Species is being read in by the `data` function whereas setting the global option stringsAsFactors = FALSE DOES effect how Species is being read in by read.table especially since data is documented as calling read.table. In my opinion, one or the other should change (the behavior of data, or the documentation). <bleep> <bleep>, ~ Malcolm > -----Original Message----- > From: peter dalgaard [mailto:pda...@gmail.com] > Sent: Thursday, February 18, 2016 3:32 PM > To: Cook, Malcolm <m...@stowers.org> > Cc: r-de...@stat.math.ethz.ch > Subject: Re: [Rd] should `data` respect default.stringsAsFactors()? > > What the <bleep> are you on about? data() does many things, only some of > which call read.table() et al., and the ones that do have no special > treatment > of stringsAsFactors. > > -pd > > > On 18 Feb 2016, at 21:25 , Cook, Malcolm <m...@stowers.org> wrote: > > > > Hiya, > > > > Probably been debated elsewhere.... > > > > I note that R's `data` function does not respect default.stringsAsFactors > > > > By my lights, it should, especially as it is documented to call read.table, > which DOES respect. > > > > Oh, but: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/stringsAsFactors-FALSE- > tp921891p921893.html > > > > Compelling. I have to agree. > > > > So, I change my mind. > > > > By my lights, `data` should then be documented to NOT respect > default.stringsAsFactors. > > > > Else? > > > > ~Malcolm Cook > > > > ______________________________________________ > > R-devel@r-project.org mailing list > > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel > > -- > Peter Dalgaard, Professor, > Center for Statistics, Copenhagen Business School > Solbjerg Plads 3, 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark > Phone: (+45)38153501 > Office: A 4.23 > Email: pd....@cbs.dk Priv: pda...@gmail.com > > > > > > > > ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel ______________________________________________ R-devel@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-devel
