transpose data matrix while keeping values numeric

Question

I have a set of data like so

  GSM482075 GSM482076 GSM482077 GSM482078 GSM482079 GSM482080 GSM482081 GSM482082
1   8.79703   8.04291   7.53674   9.94527   8.38775   8.02375   11.1607   10.5481
2   5.66556   6.42794   6.62527   6.19131   5.34138   5.69543    5.9252   5.55675

I want to transpose and turn the columns into rows and rows into columns but when I use t() it converts the numeric values into strings.

 1         2        
GSM482075 "8.79703" "5.66556"
GSM482076 "8.04291" "6.42794"
GSM482077 "7.53674" "6.62527"
GSM482078 "9.94527" "6.19131"
GSM482079 "8.38775" "5.34138"
GSM482080 "8.02375" "5.69543"
GSM482081 "11.1607" "5.9252" 
GSM482082 "10.5481" "5.55675"

I've looked around but I haven't found a straightforward way to keep the numbers numeric. I was thinking about stripping out the labels but I haven't seen any answers on how to do that except people telling others not to. Any suggestions? thanks

EDIT: Results of str(geomatrixsub) 1st object shown

 'data.frame':  2 obs. of  8 variables:
$ GSM482075: chr  "8.79703" "5.66556"
$ GSM482076: chr  "8.04291" "6.42794"
$ GSM482077: chr  "7.53674" "6.62527"
$ GSM482078: chr  "9.94527" "6.19131"
$ GSM482079: chr  "8.38775" "5.34138"
$ GSM482080: chr  "8.02375" "5.69543"
$ GSM482081: chr  "11.1607" "5.9252"
$ GSM482082: chr  "10.5481" "5.55675"

using t(geomatrixsub[1:2,] )

      1         2        
GSM482075 "8.79703" "5.66556"
GSM482076 "8.04291" "6.42794"
GSM482077 "7.53674" "6.62527"
GSM482078 "9.94527" "6.19131"
GSM482079 "8.38775" "5.34138"
GSM482080 "8.02375" "5.69543"
GSM482081 "11.1607" "5.9252" 
GSM482082 "10.5481" "5.55675"

Your values almost certainly are not numeric to begin with, despite looking like they are. My guess is they are `factor`. Post the result of `str(x)` where `x` is your data.frame — BrodieG, Jul 05 '15 at 01:36
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/28917076/transposing-data-frames — ExperimenteR, Jul 05 '15 at 01:40
Your data isn't numeric! So why by transposing it it will magically become numeric? — David Arenburg, Jul 05 '15 at 08:25
Yeah, I guess it started off as nonnumeric so LegalizeIt's solution seems to have worked. Thanks — A D, Jul 05 '15 at 18:18

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 05 '15 at 02:01

I know there are several solutions around here with reshape2 and tidyr functions. I've tried a base R solution. Here is it:

 t(dat[1:2, ])
                 1       2
GSM482075  8.79703 5.66556
GSM482076  8.04291 6.42794
GSM482077  7.53674 6.62527
GSM482078  9.94527 6.19131
GSM482079  8.38775 5.34138
GSM482080  8.02375 5.69543
GSM482081 11.16070 5.92520
GSM482082 10.54810 5.55675

I have used data provided, read in R with this with this code that has a data frame of numeric but with matrixes I think it should work too:

dat <- read.table(text = " GSM482075 GSM482076 GSM482077 GSM482078 GSM482079 GSM482080 GSM482081 GSM482082
1   8.79703   8.04291   7.53674   9.94527   8.38775   8.02375   11.1607   10.5481
                  2   5.66556   6.42794   6.62527   6.19131   5.34138   5.69543    5.9252   5.55675")

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 12 '21 at 15:32

I know that this is an old post, but I had the same problem and I found another way to do it.

dat <- read.table(text = " GSM482075 GSM482076 GSM482077 GSM482078 GSM482079 GSM482080 GSM482081 GSM482082
1   8.79703   8.04291   7.53674   9.94527   8.38775   8.02375   11.1607   10.5481
                  2   5.66556   6.42794   6.62527   6.19131   5.34138   5.69543    5.9252   5.55675")

dat_t = as.data.frame(x = t(dat), stringsAsFactors = FALSE)


> dat_t
                 1       2
GSM482075  8.79703 5.66556
GSM482076  8.04291 6.42794
GSM482077  7.53674 6.62527
GSM482078  9.94527 6.19131
GSM482079  8.38775 5.34138
GSM482080  8.02375 5.69543
GSM482081 11.16070 5.92520
GSM482082 10.54810 5.55675

The original source is here: https://community.rstudio.com/t/how-to-transpose-data-frame-and-retain-variable-data-types/45843

The OP says the starting data structure is a 'data matrix'. Your answer--while useful--returns a dataframe. — jubilatious1, Apr 12 '21 at 22:08

transpose data matrix while keeping values numeric

2 Answers2