On Fri, 21 Oct 2011, David Winsemius wrote:
What problem are you trying to solve?
What I need now is to compare TDS (total dissolved solids) with specific conductivity and the ions that are normally comprise TDS. Before running any regression models I need to look at these data from three points of view: all data from all sites within each hydrographic drainage basin collected during the past 30 years; average (or total) concentrations (not yet decided on what makes the most ecological sense) within a stream having multiple collection sites; and by site within certain streams. Here is the data frame structure: str(chemdata) 'data.frame': 47244 obs. of 6 variables: $ site : Factor w/ 143 levels "BC-0.5","BC-1",..: 134 134 134 127 127 $ sampdate: Date, format: "2006-12-06" "2006-12-06" ... $ param : Factor w/ 66 levels "AGP","ANP","ANP/AGP",..: 58 66 12 24 59 66 $ quant : num 1.08e+04 7.95 1.80e-02 2.80e+02 1.90e+01 8.44 1.62e+03 $ stream : Factor w/ 24 levels "BCrk","CCrk",..: 4 4 4 21 21 21 4 $ basin : Factor w/ 2 levels "BasinEast","BasinWest": 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 ... While all the data sets used in the books I've read are simpler and well illustrate the analyses presented, what I've not read is guidance on how complex data sets could (or should) be partitioned into smaller but still related data sets to facilitate analyses. Or, how I extract the relevant rows and columns for specific analyses.
That seems very unlikely. What we need is a clearer description of that values that your "param" variable can assume, and what you want to within categories of those values. We also need you to stop dropping context.
There are 66 different chemicals in the param factor. However, for the immediate effort, only 7 are needed. They are coded 'TDS', 'Cond', 'Mg', 'SO4', 'Cl', 'Na', and 'Ca'. From the database table I know the number of non-NULL (non-NA) rows for each parameter: TDS 2181 Cond 820 Mg 1120 SO4 1980 Cl 1971 Na 866 Ca 1110 Not all were required to be measured at all sites from the beginning in 1981. I do not yet know how many rows have non-NULL values for the 6 pairs compared with TDS. If there's more information to provide I'll gladly do so. Thanks, Rich ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.