How can I change the data type in R programming?

In the context of data analytics, if you want to change data type in R programming or say column from character to numeric, then you should follow several points:-

Let us consider a scenario where you have a data frame whose name is “my_data” with a column whose name is “age” and it is stored as character data and you want to convert it to the numerical data:-

# Check the current data type of the ‘age’ column

Class(my_data$age)  # This should display ‘character’

# Convert the ‘age’ column from character to numeric

My_data$age <- as.numeric(my_data$age)

# Check for potential issues or inconsistencies in the conversion

# Use functions like is.na() or any() to check for NA/missing values or non-numeric entries

If (any(is.na(my_data$age))) {

  # Handle missing or non-numeric entries if present

  # For instance, converting non-convertible strings to NA

  My_data$age <- as.numeric(ifelse(is.na(as.numeric(my_data$age)), NA, my_data$age))

}

# Check the data type after conversion

Class(my_data$age)  # This should display ‘numeric’

# Validate the converted column and assess its statistical properties

Summary(my_data$age)  # Get a summary of the numeric column (mean, min, max, etc.)

Keep in remember that do not forget to create a backup of your data before performing operations like changing the data into a number from a character so that you can retrieve the data if you need further.