Consider:
notBroken<-within(mtcars, {
gear<-as.factor(gear)
cyl<-as.factor(cyl)})
str(notBroken)
Our output,
> str(notBroken)
'data.frame': 32 obs. of 11 variables:
$ mpg : num 21 21 22.8 21.4 18.7 18.1 14.3 24.4 22.8 19.2 ...
$ cyl : Factor w/ 3 levels "4","6","8": 2 2 1 2 3 2 3 1 1 2 ...
$ disp: num 160 160 108 258 360 ...
$ hp : num 110 110 93 110 175 105 245 62 95 123 ...
$ drat: num 3.9 3.9 3.85 3.08 3.15 2.76 3.21 3.69 3.92 3.92 ...
$ wt : num 2.62 2.88 2.32 3.21 3.44 ...
$ qsec: num 16.5 17 18.6 19.4 17 ...
$ vs : num 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 ...
$ am : num 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...
$ gear: Factor w/ 3 levels "3","4","5": 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 ...
$ carb: num 4 4 1 1 2 1 4 2 2 4 ...
shows that cyl and gear have become factors, as desired. However, this:
broken<-within(mtcars,lapply(list(gear,cyl),as.factor))
str(broken)
does not do the same.
> str(broken)
'data.frame': 32 obs. of 11 variables:
$ mpg : num 21 21 22.8 21.4 18.7 18.1 14.3 24.4 22.8 19.2 ...
$ cyl : num 6 6 4 6 8 6 8 4 4 6 ...
$ disp: num 160 160 108 258 360 ...
$ hp : num 110 110 93 110 175 105 245 62 95 123 ...
$ drat: num 3.9 3.9 3.85 3.08 3.15 2.76 3.21 3.69 3.92 3.92 ...
$ wt : num 2.62 2.88 2.32 3.21 3.44 ...
$ qsec: num 16.5 17 18.6 19.4 17 ...
$ vs : num 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 ...
$ am : num 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...
$ gear: num 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 4 4 4 ...
$ carb: num 4 4 1 1 2 1 4 2 2 4 ...
Why?
I suspect that it might have something to do with how with(mtcars,gear) shows that within treats gear like mtcars$gear and not mtcars["gear"], but that's not a full answer. Was what I was trying to do in this way possible?
This is because the lapply() does not assign the output to the variables gear and cyl of broken (e.g. no changes occurred to broken).
broken<-within(mtcars, gear <- unlist(lapply(list(gear), as.factor)))
str(broken)
'data.frame': 32 obs. of 11 variables:
$ mpg : num 21 21 22.8 21.4 18.7 18.1 14.3 24.4 22.8 19.2 ...
$ cyl : num 6 6 4 6 8 6 8 4 4 6 ...
$ disp: num 160 160 108 258 360 ...
$ hp : num 110 110 93 110 175 105 245 62 95 123 ...
$ drat: num 3.9 3.9 3.85 3.08 3.15 2.76 3.21 3.69 3.92 3.92 ...
$ wt : num 2.62 2.88 2.32 3.21 3.44 ...
$ qsec: num 16.5 17 18.6 19.4 17 ...
$ vs : num 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 ...
$ am : num 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 ...
$ gear: Factor w/ 3 levels "3","4","5": 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 ...
$ carb: num 4 4 1 1 2 1 4 2 2 4 ...
Comparing to with:
x <- with(mtcars, lapply(list(gear, cyl), as.factor))
str(x)
List of 2
$ : Factor w/ 3 levels "3","4","5": 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 ...
$ : Factor w/ 3 levels "4","6","8": 2 2 1 2 3 2 3 1 1 2 ...