Transposes a data frame, converting variables to cases and vice versa
tFrame(x)The data frame to be transposed.
The transposed data frame
The tFrame function is a convenience function that simply
transposes the input data frame and coerces the result back to a data frame.
Apart from a very small amount of exception handling, it is equivalent to
as.data.frame(t(x)). It exists simply because I sometimes find it
convenient when teaching statistics to discuss simple data handling before
going into details regarding coercion; similarly, since I generally have
students work with data frames before exposing them to matrices, it is
convenient to have a transpose function that returns a data frame as output.
Naturally, the tFrame function should only be used when it is
actually sensible to think of the cases of x as variables in their
own right. In real life I expect that this maps almost perfectly onto those
cases where x could be a matrix just as easily as a data frame, so
I don't believe that tFrame is useful in real world data analysis. It
is intended as a teaching tool.
# Create a data frame that could sensibly be transposed...
Gf <- c(105, 119, 121, 98) # fluid intelligence for 4 people
Gc <- c(110, 115, 119, 103) # crystallised intelligence
Gs <- c(112, 102, 108, 99) # speed of processing
dataset <- data.frame( Gf, Gc, Gs )
rownames(dataset) <- paste( "person", 1:4, sep="" )
print(dataset)
#> Gf Gc Gs
#> person1 105 110 112
#> person2 119 115 102
#> person3 121 119 108
#> person4 98 103 99
# Now transpose it...
tFrame( dataset )
#> person1 person2 person3 person4
#> Gf 105 119 121 98
#> Gc 110 115 119 103
#> Gs 112 102 108 99