How do you recode a variable?

Question

I have a variable (animal) that sits in a data frame (data). It is coded 1 = dog, 2 = cat, 3 = bunny, 4 = horse, 5 = monkey.

I want to recode it so that horse and bunny = 2 and everything else = 1. How do I do this?

Can you share an example of data. It's not clear how it is that your data is coded, if it is factor or not. — Ric, Nov 14 '22 at 18:49

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 14 '22 at 18:41

2

Here is a way. Untested, since there are no data.

The logical condition data$animal %in% 3:4 returns FALSE/TRUE, coded as 0/1;
add 1L to get 1/2

That's it.

data$animal <- 1L + (data$animal %in% 3:4)

answered Nov 14 '22 at 18:41

Rui Barradas

thank you! that works! Do you know how I could code it instead to 1 for bunny and horse and 0 for everything else? – Emily Jones Nov 14 '22 at 19:07
@RosieJones Remove the `1L`. If you want 0/1 and not 1/2, don't add 1. – Rui Barradas Nov 14 '22 at 19:18
that seems to just give me FALSE for every value? – Emily Jones Nov 14 '22 at 19:26
@RosieJones No, not if you *keep the plus sign*. Alternatively, and more readable, remove the plus sign and write `as.integer(data$animal %in% 3:4)`. – Rui Barradas Nov 14 '22 at 22:03

1 Answers1