Hi All, Thank you very much for all your suggestions. It's a great learning for me. All the three suggested solutions seem working. I don't know what 'side effects' that you were talking about. To summarize the responses:
> s <- read.table("sample.txt", sep="\t") > s1 <- as.matrix(s) > s1 V1 V2 V3 1 0.59 0.47 0.44 2 0.85 0.42 0.57 3 0.48 0.57 0.57 4 0.61 0.24 0.24 5 0.38 0.21 0.36 6 0.65 0.42 1.50 7 0.49 0.23 0.42 8 0.60 0.51 0.53 9 0.00 0.00 0.00 > s2 <- as.vector(s1) > s2 [1] 0.59 0.85 0.48 0.61 0.38 0.65 0.49 0.60 0.00 0.47 0.42 0.57 0.24 0.21 0.42 0.23 0.51 0.00 0.44 0.57 0.57 0.24 0.36 [24] 1.50 0.42 0.53 0.00 > s3 <- c(s1) > s3 [1] 0.59 0.85 0.48 0.61 0.38 0.65 0.49 0.60 0.00 0.47 0.42 0.57 0.24 0.21 0.42 0.23 0.51 0.00 0.44 0.57 0.57 0.24 0.36 [24] 1.50 0.42 0.53 0.00 > s3 <- s1 > dim(s3) <- NULL > s3 [1] 0.59 0.85 0.48 0.61 0.38 0.65 0.49 0.60 0.00 0.47 0.42 0.57 0.24 0.21 0.42 0.23 0.51 0.00 0.44 0.57 0.57 0.24 0.36 [24] 1.50 0.42 0.53 0.00 Interestingly, if I apply the same three solutions to the data.frame 's', the results are different: (1) as.vector() keeps the data frame as it is. (2) c() changes into lists, and (3) making dim() <- NULL keeps as structure. Thanks again. Kind regards, Ezhil --- Peter Dalgaard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Marc Schwartz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > On Wed, 2007-03-28 at 19:55 -0200, Alberto > Monteiro wrote: > >> Prof Brian Ripley wrote: > >> > > >> > We have already seen three solutions. > >> > > >> > I don't like to see the use of c() for its side > effects. In this > >> > case Marc's as.vector seems to me to be > self-explanatory, and that > >> > is a virtue in programming that is too often > undervalued. > >> > > >> I agree; but for our enlightnment, what are the > side effects of > >> c()? > >> > >> Alberto Monteiro > > > > I believe that Prof. Ripley is referring to the > following, from the > > Details section in ?c: > > > > > > "c is sometimes used for its side effect of > removing attributes except > > names, for example to turn an array into a vector. > as.vector is a more > > intuitive way to do this, but also drops names." > > > > > > There are also examples in ?c of this behavior. > > The terminology is a bit unfortunate, though. "Side > effect" usually > means an effect that is not reflected in the return > value of a > function, like printing, plotting, or assignment. > > -- > O__ ---- Peter Dalgaard Ă˜ster > Farimagsgade 5, Entr.B > c/ /'_ --- Dept. of Biostatistics PO Box 2099, > 1014 Cph. K > (*) \(*) -- University of Copenhagen Denmark > Ph: (+45) 35327918 > ~~~~~~~~~~ - ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > FAX: (+45) 35327907 > > ______________________________________________ > 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 > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, > reproducible code. > ____________________________________________________________________________________ Food fight? Enjoy some healthy debate ______________________________________________ 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 and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.