Software tutorial/Basic data manipulation in R

<rst> <rst-options: 'toc' = False/> <rst-options: 'reset-figures' = False/> Continuing the previous example: when you loaded the ``website`` data you saw there were 4 columns (``DayOfWeek``, ``MonthDay``, ``Year``, ``Visits``) and 214 rows. You can get this information more quickly:

.. code-block:: s

website <- read.csv('http://openmv.net/file/website-traffic.csv') ncol(website) [1] 4 nrow(website) [1] 214

To get a summary of each column in the data frame (that is the term R uses for a collection of data):

.. code-block:: s

summary(website)

DayOfWeek MonthDay Year Visits Friday :30 August 1 : 1 Min. :2009 Min.  : 3.00 Monday :31 August 10: 1 1st Qu.:2009 1st Qu.:16.25 Saturday :30 August 11: 1 Median :2009 Median :22.00 Sunday :30 August 12: 1 Mean :2009 Mean :22.23 Thursday :31 August 13: 1 3rd Qu.:2009 3rd Qu.:27.75 Tuesday :31 August 14: 1 Max. :2009 Max. :48.00 Wednesday:31 (Other) :208

Compare the summary printout above with the actual data and make sure you understand what every line means.

Let's say you are interested only in one column from the data, e.g. ``Visits``. You can access just that column by using the ``$`` symbol. This next code snippet shows how to calculate a summary just for the ``Visits`` variable: .. code-block:: s summary(website$Visits)

Min. 1st Qu. Median Mean 3rd Qu. Max. 3.00 16.25 22.00 22.23 27.75 48.00

Another way to access all the data from the ``Visits`` column (column 4 in the table) is:

.. code-block:: s

web.visits <- website[,4]

You can interpret the above command as saying "*give me all rows in the website data set and only the values in column 4*"

Take a look at this new variable (note that R variables can have periods in their names)

.. code-block:: s

web.visits [1] 27 31 38 38 31 24 21 29 30 22 24 17 7 13 20 17 11 19 15 3 12 25 [23] 17 24 30 22 15 14 29 10 19 34 12 5 14 26 8 16 11 10 12 11 14 23 [45] 30 19 21 14 18 27 26 27 23 16 5 18 29 35 22 22 10 7 12 23 38 43 [67] 26 19 18 10 19 19 38 22 25 18 24 21 28 30 21 26 11 12 20 21 23 25 [89] 19 14 17 21 38 27 21 18 19 20 18 26 28 30 28 29 16 30 23 24 44 28 [111] 20 20 16 22 31 31 30 30 29 27 37 35 22 28 23 48 46 35 40 22 26 14 [133] 19 26 25 21 29 34 15 16 19 29 32 25 24 17 23 42 28 23 27 26 22 15 [155] 32 22 29 25 15 18 28 27 35 26 26 20 22 13 22 25 29 20 12 14 13 38 [177] 35 25 24 17 22 21 32 26 30 21 27 13 14 21 19 30 16 20 8 10 13 31 [199] 24 18 17 7 13 22 22 22 13 10 12 15 24 18 10 7

What if we want to access the number in the first row and fourth column of ``website``?

.. code-block:: s

website[1, 4] [1] 27

Or in the second row and first column?

.. code-block:: s

website[2, 1] [1] Tuesday Levels: Friday Monday Saturday Sunday Thursday Tuesday Wednesday

Now let's say you want all rows from ``website`` where the column value for ``DayOfWeek`` is ``Monday``.

We do this in 2 steps. First, we introduce the "``==``" operation, which means "*is equal to*"

.. code-block:: s

website$DayOfWeek == "Monday" [1] TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE [13] FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE [25] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE [37] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE [49] FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE [61] FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE [73] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE [85] TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE [97] FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE [109] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE [121] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE [133] FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE [145] FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE [157] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE [169] TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE [181] FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE [193] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE [205] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE TRUE FALSE FALSE FALSE It returns a logical (true/false) array with TRUE where the condition is met. Now we can use this array to access all rows where this condition is met: .. code-block:: s Mondays.rows <- website[website$DayOfWeek == "Monday", ] Mondays.rows

DayOfWeek MonthDay Year Visits 1 Monday June 1 2009 27 8 Monday June 8 2009 29 15 Monday June 15 2009 20 ... 204 Monday December 21 2009 22 211 Monday December 28 2009 24

The above command gives you all data which are recorded for Mondays. Now, what if you want to break that down further - you only want the number of visits on a Monday? Then you need to ask for column 4 only:

.. code-block:: s

Mondays.visits <- website[website$DayOfWeek == "Monday", 4]

Mondays.visits [1] 27 29 20 25 29 26 14 27 29 23 19 21 20 21 18 30 16 27 46 26 19 42 32 27 22 38 32 21 13 22 24

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