set_col_as_numeric {dataPreparation}

Set columns as numeric

Description

Set as numeric a character column (or a list of columns) from a data.table.

Usage

set_col_as_numeric(data_set, cols, strip_string = FALSE, verbose = TRUE)

Arguments

data_set

Matrix, data.frame or data.table

cols

List of column(s) name(s) of data_set to transform into numerics

strip_string

should I change "," to "." in the string? (logical, default to FALSE) If set to TRUE, computation will be a bit longer

verbose

Should the function log (logical, default to TRUE)

Value

data_set (as a data.table), with specified columns set as numeric.

Examples

# Build a fake data.table
data_set <- data.frame(charCol1 = c("1", "2", "3"),
						 charCol2 = c("4", "5", "6"))

# Set charCol1 and charCol2 as numeric
data_set <- set_col_as_numeric(data_set, cols = c("charCol1", "charCol2"))

# Using strip string when spaces or wrong decimal separator is used
data_set <- data.frame(charCol1 = c("1", "2", "3"),
                      charCol2 = c("4, 1", "5, 2", "6, 3"))

# Set charCol1 and charCol2 as numeric
set_col_as_numeric(data_set, cols = c("charCol1", "charCol2"))
# generate mistakes
set_col_as_numeric(data_set, cols = c("charCol1", "charCol2"), strip_string = TRUE)
# Doesn't generate any mistake (but is a bit slower)