dummification throws an error.'x' must be atomic for 'sort.list'

Question

My str(df) looks like below :

> str(categoricalVar)
'data.frame':   56660 obs. of  10 variables:
 $ FavouriteSource    : Factor w/ 3 levels "App","LF","None": 1 1 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 ...
 $ FavouriteSource30  : Factor w/ 3 levels "App","LF","None": 1 1 3 3 3 1 3 3 3 3 ...
 $ FavouriteSource90  : Factor w/ 3 levels "App","LF","None": 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 ...
 $ FavouriteSource180 : Factor w/ 3 levels "App","LF","None": 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 ...
 $ FavouriteSource360 : Factor w/ 3 levels "App","LF","None": 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 ...
 $ Favorite_GameBin   : Factor w/ 594 levels " Team Umizoomi: Street Fair Fix -Up (Explorer)",..: 262 163 388 378 378 220 253 378 378 378 ...
 $ Favorite_GameBin30 : Factor w/ 309 levels "1-2-3 Dora!",..: 191 191 191 191 191 191 191 191 191 191 ...
 $ Favorite_GameBin90 : Factor w/ 332 levels "1-2-3 Dora!",..: 206 206 206 206 206 206 206 206 206 206 ...
 $ Favorite_GameBin180: Factor w/ 363 levels "1-2-3 Dora!",..: 226 226 226 226 226 226 226 226 226 226 ...
 $ Favorite_GameBin360: Factor w/ 449 levels " Team Umizoomi: Street Fair Fix -Up (Explorer)",..: 283 283 283 283 283 283 283 283 283 283 ...
>

I'm trying to dummify them but, it throws an error as below :

> categoricalVar_dummy <- dummy(categoricalVar)
Error in sort.list(y) : 'x' must be atomic for 'sort.list'
Have you called 'sort' on a list?

What Am I doing wrong ?

use `lapply` to loop through the data frame and then with the anonymous function, you can perform dummy action. Data frame is a kind of list. The `dummy()` function expects data as vector. Try `lapply(df1, dummy)` — Sathish, Feb 03 '18 at 07:08

Eric Fail · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-04T10:54:01.417

Here's two solution using the dummies package. I can't see from your question if the dummy calls is from the dummies package. Regardless,

first some data,

categoricalVar <- data.frame(
          FavouriteSource = c('bar', 'foo', 'foo', 'foobar', 'foo', 'foo'),
          FavouriteSource30 = c('A', 'C', 'C', 'B', 'B', 'A')); categoricalVar
#>   FavouriteSource FavouriteSource30
#> 1             bar                 A
#> 2             foo                 C
#> 3             foo                 C
#> 4          foobar                 B
#> 5             foo                 B
#> 6             foo                 A

then load the dummies library

# install.packages(c("dummies"), dependencies = TRUE)
library(dummies)

and here the dummy.data.frame() method to get dummies,

dummy.data.frame(categoricalVar)
#>   FavouriteSourcebar FavouriteSourcefoo FavouriteSourcefoobar FavouriteSource30A
#> 1                  1                  0                     0                  1
#> 2                  0                  1                     0                  0
#> 3                  0                  1                     0                  0
#> 4                  0                  0                     1                  0
#> 5                  0                  1                     0                  0
#> 6                  0                  1                     0                  1
#>   FavouriteSource30B FavouriteSource30C
#> 1                  0                  0
#> 2                  0                  1
#> 3                  0                  1
#> 4                  1                  0
#> 5                  1                  0
#> 6                  0                  0

or as Sathish suggest in the comment above,

lapply(categoricalVar, dummy)
#> $FavouriteSource
#>      categoricalVarbar categoricalVarfoo categoricalVarfoobar
#> [1,]                 1                 0                    0
#> [2,]                 0                 1                    0
#> [3,]                 0                 1                    0
#> [4,]                 0                 0                    1
#> [5,]                 0                 1                    0
#> [6,]                 0                 1                    0
#> 
#> $FavouriteSource30
#>      categoricalVarA categoricalVarB categoricalVarC
#> [1,]               1               0               0
#> [2,]               0               0               1
#> [3,]               0               0               1
#> [4,]               0               1               0
#> [5,]               0               1               0
#> [6,]               1               0               0

dummification throws an error.'x' must be atomic for 'sort.list'

1 Answers1