On 20-07-2013, at 06:37, Jin Choi <oohps...@gmail.com> wrote: > I am having difficulty finding a solution to devising an R code to do the > following: > > I have 5 numerical variables and I would like to create a new variable that > is the sum of those 5 variables. However, there are many NA values > throughout these 5 variables and everytime I run the following code > > new_variable=var1+var2+var3+var4+var5 > > I get NA as the sum whenever one of those 5 variables are NA. I cannot > figure out a way to have new_variable represent the sum for only those > values that are not NA. > > As an example, > if var1=3 > var2=3 > var3=NA > var4=NA > var5=2 > > I would like new_variable to be 8 but I keep getting NA and I have > unsuccessfully tried different methods to do so. I feel there is a simple > method to solve my problem but I am unaware of such. I would appreciate any > guidance!
?sum Have a look at the na.rm argument of sum. Berend ______________________________________________ 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.