The key to solving your problem is that read.spss per default gives you a *list* and not a *dataframe* (can anyone explain this choice of default?).
So most likely wou want: children = read.spss(filename,to.data.frame=TRUE) attach(children) or to get things a little more handy: children <- read.spss(filename,to.data.frame=TRUE) names(children) <- tolower( names( children ) ) attach(children) best, Bendix ---------------------- Bendix Carstensen Senior Statistician Steno Diabetes Center Niels Steensens Vej 2 DK-2820 Gentofte Denmark tel: +45 44 43 87 38 mob: +45 30 75 87 38 fax: +45 44 43 07 06 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.biostat.ku.dk/~bxc ---------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: Romain Francois [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, June 13, 2005 9:48 AM > To: Mike Day; RHELP > Subject: Re: [R] assignment of inidividual variables from > spss save files > > > Le 13.06.2005 09:22, Mike Day a écrit : > > >New to R, can't afford SPSS! > > > >Why can't I assign spss variables? Here are the details. > > > > > ### I've read in my collaborator's sav file using read.spss, eg > > > children = read.spss(filename) ### It has many variables > > > length(children) > >[1] 347 > > > ### and I would like to assign individual variables. > > > ### I can of course type out all the ones I want, eg > > > ADULTS11<-children[18] ### But I'm lazy, so tried: > > > (function (x,n){assign(names(x[n]),x[n])})(children,2) > > > ### where > > > names(children[2]) > >[1] "ADNUTS06" > > > ### but > > > ADNUTS06 > >Error: Object "ADNUTS06" not found > > > ### I've tried lots of variations, including creating and ### > > > evaluating statements such as "ADNUTS06<-children[2]", ### but > > > without apparently yielding the required variable. > > > >I expect the answer will be "You shouldn't start from here!" Ideas > >welcome. > > > >Thanks, Mike > > > > > ?attach may be what you are looking for > > > -- > visit the R Graph Gallery : http://addictedtor.free.fr/graphiques > ~~~~~~~~ > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ > ~~~~~~ Romain FRANCOIS - http://addictedtor.free.fr > ~~~~~~ > ~~~~ Etudiant ISUP - CS3 - Industrie et Services > ~~~~ > ~~ http://www.isup.cicrp.jussieu.fr/ > ~~ > ~~~~ Stagiaire INRIA Futurs - Equipe SELECT > ~~~~ > ~~~~~~ http://www.inria.fr/recherche/equipes/select.fr.html > ~~~~~~ > ~~~~~~~~ > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ > > > ______________________________________________ R-help@stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html