Convert Data Frame Column to Numeric in R (2 Examples)

my_data <- data.frame(char = c("3", "75", "10", "8"),        # Create example data
                      fact = factor(c("3", "1", "5", "5")),
                      stringsAsFactors = FALSE)
my_data                                                      # Print data to console
# char fact
#    3    3
#   75    1
#   10    5
#    8    5

my_data <- data.frame(char = c("3", "75", "10", "8"), # Create example data fact = factor(c("3", "1", "5", "5")), stringsAsFactors = FALSE) my_data # Print data to console # char fact # 3 3 # 75 1 # 10 5 # 8 5

class(my_data$char)                                          # Check class of first column
# "character"

class(my_data$fact)                                          # Check class of second column
# "factor"

class(my_data$char) # Check class of first column # "character" class(my_data$fact) # Check class of second column # "factor"

my_data$char <- as.numeric(my_data$char)                     # Character column to numeric

my_data$char <- as.numeric(my_data$char) # Character column to numeric

class(my_data$char)
# "numeric"

class(my_data$char) # "numeric"

my_data$fact <- as.numeric(as.character(my_data$fact))       # Factor column to numeric

my_data$fact <- as.numeric(as.character(my_data$fact)) # Factor column to numeric

class(my_data$fact)
# "numeric"

class(my_data$fact) # "numeric"