Analysis in R: Detecting strings as numbers. The “type.convert” command

When manipulating data, the data may change from numbers to letters. A shortcut to the solution is to occasionally check the data structure with the str command and convert it with the as.integer command.

Another option is to use the “type.convert” command, which recognizes character data as numbers. The type.convert command is characterized by the “na.string” option, which specifies a string of missing values. You can use this command if as.integer returns an error.

Checked with R version 4.2.2.

Example

See the command and package help for details.

#Save numbers as strings
ChaTest <- c("1", "2", "3")
#Checked Class
class(ChaTest)
[1] "character"
#Calculation, of course error
ChaTest[1] + ChaTest[2]
ChaTest[1] + ChaTest[2] error
#Calculation, of course error
sum(ChaTest)
sum(ChaTest) error

#Use the "type.convert" command
#Detect strings as numbers
class(type.convert(ChaTest))
[1] "integer"
#Calculation,Get Correct Answer
type.convert(ChaTest[1]) + type.convert(ChaTest[2])
[1] 3
#Calculation!!
sum(type.convert(ChaTest))
[1] 6

I hope this makes your analysis a little easier !!