Data Frames and their Management

This chapter describes how a typical data set used in multivariate analysis is composed - i.e. as a rectangular arrangement of variables and observations. The chapter further describes ways to manipulate data within data frames and how data frames can be restricted, combined, and reshaped. The chapter also discusses how data in various formats can be imported. Such data formats include CSV, TAB-delimited, and fixed-column files.

Below is the supporting material for the various sections of the chapter.

The Structure of Data Frames

The structure of data frames

Accessing and Changing Variables in Data Frames

Accessing and changing variables

Manipulating Data Frames

Creating subsets of data frames

Merging data frames: An example with data from the British Election Study

Merging data frames: An example with artificial data

Appending data frames

Reshaping data frames: An example with artificial data

Reshaping data frames: An example with data from the British Election Study

Sorting data frames

Aggregating Data Frames

Aggregating data frames

Groupwise computations within Data Frames

Groupwise computations within data frames

Importing Data into Data Frames

Importing data into data frames