Ordering data frame by Column in R Isn't Working

Asked Jun 25 '15 at 02:34

Active Jun 25 '15 at 02:44

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Full disclosure: this is part of an assignment for the R Programming Course offered by Coursera that I am auditing.

I'm working with a dataset on hospitals accessible at this link through the course.

Essentially, I need to order the 30 day hospital mortality rate for a particular state so that the hospital with the lowest rate comes first.

Here's the code, nested throughout a larger function, I've used to do that:

data <- read.csv("rprog-data-ProgAssignment3-data/outcome-of-care-measures.csv")
state_data <- subset(data, "TX")
reord <- state_data[with(state_data, order(Hospital.30.Day.Death..Mortality..Rates.from.Heart.Failure)), ]

However, when I look at the column of reord for Hospital.30.Day.Death..Mortality..Rates.from.Heart.Failure, I see values starting at 10.0, increasing to 15.8 AND THEN the next row starts at 8.1 and increases to 9.9. It's as if the order function is ordering based on number length, and then the actual values.

Thoughts on why this is?

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

asked Jun 25 '15 at 02:34

zthomas.nc

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Does this question respect [Coursera Honor Code](https://www.coursera.org/about/terms/honorcode)? – Jun 25 '15 at 02:39
Good question -- I am auditing the course. Just curious why the ordering here doesn't work. – zthomas.nc Jun 25 '15 at 02:40
is your column of class character or factor? – Rorschach Jun 25 '15 at 02:44
as it's a class question, a hint - str(state_data$Hospital.30.Day.Death..Mortality..Rates.from.Heart.Failure) – jeremycg Jun 25 '15 at 02:45
It's a factor! I tried using as.numeric, but it didn't seem to help :( – zthomas.nc Jun 25 '15 at 02:51
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See http://stackoverflow.com/a/3418192/3710546 – Jun 25 '15 at 02:52
Thanks -- this did the trick for a beginner R programmer like me! – zthomas.nc Jun 25 '15 at 03:06

Ordering data frame by Column in R Isn't Working

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