Convert dummy variables to factor.

Convert multiple dummy variables into a single factor variable.

Usage

dummiesToFactor(dat, dummies, facVar, nameEmptyCategory = "_none_")

Arguments

dat

A data.frame.

dummies

Character vector containing the names of the dummy variables in the data.frame.

facVar

Name of the factor variable, that should be created.

nameEmptyCategory

a character of length 1 that defines the name of cases for which no dummy is equal to one.

Value

A data.frame containing the newly created factor.

Details

The content of a single factor variable can alternatively be stored in multiple dichotomous dummy variables coded with 0/1 or NA/1. 1 always has to refer to "this category applies". The function requires factor levels to be exclusive (i.e. only one factor level applies per row.).

Examples

# Example data set
tdat <- data.frame(ID = 1:3, d1=c(1, 0, 0), d2 = c(0, 1, 0), d3 = c(0, 0, 1))

dummiesToFactor(tdat, dummies = c("d1", "d2", "d3"), facVar = "newFac")
#>   ID d1 d2 d3 newFac
#> 1  1  1  0  0     d1
#> 2  2  0  1  0     d2
#> 3  3  0  0  1     d3