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rrbind

using rbind two combine two one-column variables


I am trying to simply use rbind for two columns and I use the following (all variables are city names and r considers them as factor)

firstcitynames <- rcffull$X1CityName 
secondcitynames <- rcffull$X2CityName
allcitynames <- rbind(firstcitynames, secondcitynames)
allcitynames

then when get to View(allcitynames) all I get is a bunch of numbers instead of names:

[,2276] [,2277] [,2278] [,2279] [,2280] [,2281]
                [,2282] [,2283] [,2284] [,2285] [,2286] [,2287]

Any suggestions?


Solution

  • You need to convert factors to characters with as.character(df$var)

    Here's an illustration

    a <- factor(letters[1:10])
    b <- factor(LETTERS[1:10])
    rbind(a,b)
    ##    [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7] [,8] [,9] [,10]
    ## a    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10
    ## b    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10
    
    rbind(as.character(a), as.character(b))
    ##      [,1] [,2] [,3] [,4] [,5] [,6] [,7] [,8] [,9] [,10]
    ## [1,] "a"  "b"  "c"  "d"  "e"  "f"  "g"  "h"  "i"  "j"  
    ## [2,] "A"  "B"  "C"  "D"  "E"  "F"  "G"  "H"  "I"  "J"