I want to loop through each row of the dataframe, do a test on it, and then append some data from the row. The problem is the output I get when I append information from a row is messed up when the column is a factor data type.
for(i in nrow(test)){ print(test[i,]$name) }
outputs:
[1] Bowling Green
129 Levels: Air Force Akron Alabama Arizona Arizona State Arkansas Arkansas State Army Auburn Ball State Baylor Boise State Boston College Bowling Green Buffalo BYU ... Wyoming
It seems obvious that all I want is the output "Bowling Green" instead of printing each level. So then I tried
for(i in nrow(test)){ print(factor(test[i,]$name)) }
The above code gives the desired output, BUT, when I build on it to get the full desired effect it fails:
for(i in nrow(test)){ print(c(factor(test[i,]$name), "one")) }
outputs:
"61" "one"
"94" "one"
In other words, it seems to be giving me the number of the factor
As I was writing the question I figured out the answer. I figured I'd leave it up for other people if it may be helpful. If moderators think this is bad idea feel free to delete. The solution is pretty simple. It looks like I was accessing the factor's underlying value, the name which is what I needed was just considered a "label".
It doesn't make sense for a list of names to be stored as factors even if that is how R naturally made up the dataframe when I read it from a CSV file. So this seems to make things work nicely