Dear all,
I want to use aggregate.formula to conveniently summarize a data.frame. I have
quiet some variables in the data.frame and thus I don't want to write all these
names by hand, but instead create them on the fly. This approach has the
advantage that if there will be even more columns in the data.frame I don't
have to change the code.
I've hence tried to construct a formula object and to pass that to aggregate:
d <- expand.grid(a = factor(1:3), b = factor(LETTERS[1:2]))
d <- rbind(d,d,d)
d$y <- rnorm(18)
d$z <- rnorm(18)
mF <- as.formula(paste("cbind(", paste(names(d)[-(1:2)], collapse = ","), ") ~
a + b", sep = ""))
But if I try to pass that formula to aggregate
aggregate(mF, d, mean)
I get the following error:
Error in m[[2L]][[2L]] : object of type 'symbol' is not subsettable
But if I pass the formula directly:
aggregate(cbind(y, z) ~ a + b, d, mean)
Everything is working as expected.
So I was wondering what went wrong? I know I could use a formula like . ~ a + b
instead and this would work fine, but I'm just interested in why the outlined
approach does not work as expected, and where my mistake lies? (that means in
particular I am not asking for a solution of how to get the thing done - there
are plenty of alternatives - but instead to understand why this very approach
does not work)
Thanks for your help!
Kind Regards,
Thorn Thaler
Mathematician
Applied Mathematics
Nestec Ltd,
Nestlé Research Center
PO Box 44
CH-1000 Lausanne 26
Phone: +41 21 785 8220
Fax: +41 21 785 9486
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