Create frequency tables for multiple factor columns in R

Question

I am a novice in R. I am compiling a separate manual on the syntax for the common functions/features for my work. My sample dataframe as follows:

x.sample &l         


        

Answer 1

Coming a bit late, but here's a reshape2 possible solution. It could have been very straightforward with recast but we need to handle empty factor levels here so we need to specify both factorsAsStrings = FALSE within melt and drop = FALSE within dcast, while recast can't pass arguments to melt (only to dcast), so here goes

library(reshape2)
x.sample$indx <- 1 
dcast(melt(x.sample, "indx", factorsAsStrings = FALSE), value ~ variable, drop = FALSE)
#             value Q9_A Q9_B Q9_C
# 1            Impt    1    0    0
# 2         Neutral    0    0    0
# 3 Not Impt at all    3    4    4
# 4   Somewhat Impt    0    0    0
# 5       Very Impt    6    6    6

If we wouldn't care about empty levels a quick solution would be just

recast(x.sample, value ~ variable, id.var = "indx")
#             value Q9_A Q9_B Q9_C
# 1            Impt    1    0    0
# 2 Not Impt at all    3    4    4
# 3       Very Impt    6    6    6

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Alternatively, if speed is a concern, we can do the same using data.atble

library(data.table)
dcast(melt(setDT(x.sample), measure.vars = names(x.sample), value.factor = TRUE), 
           value ~ variable, drop = FALSE)
#              value Q9_A Q9_B Q9_C
# 1:            Impt    1    0    0
# 2:         Neutral    0    0    0
# 3: Not Impt at all    3    4    4
# 4:   Somewhat Impt    0    0    0
# 5:       Very Impt    6    6    6

Answer 2

You were nearly there. Just one small change in your function would have got you there. The x in function(x) ... needs to be passed through to the table() call:

levs <- c("Not Impt at all", "Somewhat Impt", "Neutral", "Impt", "Very Impt")
sapply(x.sample, function(x) table(factor(x, levels=levs, ordered=TRUE)))

A little re-jig of the code might make it a bit easier to read too:

sapply(lapply(x.sample,factor,levels=levs,ordered=TRUE), table)

#                Q9_A Q9_B Q9_C
#Not Impt at all    3    4    4
#Somewhat Impt      0    0    0
#Neutral            0    0    0
#Impt               1    0    0
#Very Impt          6    6    6

Answer 3

Why not just:

> sapply(x.sample, table)
                Q9_A Q9_B Q9_C
Impt               1    0    0
Neutral            0    0    0
Not Impt at all    3    4    4
Somewhat Impt      0    0    0
Very Impt          6    6    6

Let's call it 'tbl';

tbl[ order(match(rownames(tbl), c("Not Impt at all", "Somewhat Impt", 
                                  "Neutral", "Impt", "Very Impt")) )   , ]
                Q9_A Q9_B Q9_C
Not Impt at all    3    4    4
Somewhat Impt      0    0    0
Neutral            0    0    0
Impt               1    0    0
Very Impt          6    6    6