[R] convert factor dataframe into numeric matrix

[sun]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Prof Brian Ripley" <ripley at stats.ox.ac.uk>
To: "sun" <flyhyena at yahoo.com.cn>
Cc: <r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch>
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 2:58 PM
Subject: Re: [R] convert factor dataframe into numeric matrix


> On Wed, 24 Oct 2007, sun wrote:
>
>> Bear me if this is a naive question.
>>
>> I have a dataframe, all lists inside it are factors. When I use
>
> Do you mean 'all columns are factors'?  A data frame is a list but usually 
> does not contain lists.
>
>> as.matrix(df) to convert, I get a character matrix while my intention is 
>> to
>> get numeric matrix. I can make the convertion  iteratively by each list 
>> but
>> I do think there is some more elegant way of doing this.
>>
>> please let me know if I missed somthing there.
>
> ?data.matrix  may be what you are looking for: you gave us too little 
> detail to be sure.
>


Thanks for your helps. I did not provide data 'cause I thought this is FAQ 
type of question(maybe wrong impression).
Actually I use algdesign generated a factorial design data frame in which:
>
> str(dat)
'data.frame':   2304 obs. of  6 variables:
 $ party : Factor w/ 3 levels "1","2","3": 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 ...
 $ dinner: Factor w/ 3 levels "1","2","3": 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 1 ...
 $ d1    : Factor w/ 4 levels "1","2","3","4": 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 ...
 $ p1    : Factor w/ 4 levels "1","2","3","4": 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
 $ d2    : Factor w/ 4 levels "1","2","3","4": 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...
 $ p2    : Factor w/ 4 levels "1","2","3","4": 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ...

I just figured out a way fo convert it to numeric matrix using
>d = as.data.frame(lapply(dat,as.numeric))

but "data.matrix()" suggested by Prof. Brian and Mr. Dimitris is exactly the 
thing I was looking for.

I am not sure if there exist some documents or online source that have 
documented these kind of "utility functions" categorized in somet categories 
like "data types", "data manipulating functions", "variable scopes", etc., 
that allow a quick browsing for some functions or other information.

Thanks for your kind helps.

Kind regards,
Sun