Question

How do you convert categorical data to numerical data in R? My categorical explanatory variable is gender and my numerical is height. I want to make a boxplot for the relationship between them. When I go to make a boxplot using this:

aces$genderF <-factor(aces$gender,labels=c("male","female"))

boxplot(aces$height_cm-aces$genderF)

I get an error.

Answer 1

1. You are using '$' sign in naming the object so I hope you have a data frame named 'aces'. If you have no data frame then remove the '$' sign and use '_' to name the object.
2. In 'aces$genderF' use 'levels' instead of 'labels' . Because 'labels' will change male to female and female to male.
3. In boxplot command use '~' instead of '-' to define a relationship. Or if you have only 2 variable then you can use ',' also.

These are the errors which I have found. Try this.

If you still get error ,feel free to ask your query.