Convert between NA values and NA levels — fct_na_value_to

There are two ways to represent missing values in factors: in the values and in the levels. NAs in the values are most useful for data analysis (since is.na() returns what you expect), but because the NA is not explicitly recorded in the levels, there's no way to control its position (it's almost always displayed last or not at all). Putting the NAs in the levels allows you to control its display, at the cost of losing accurate is.na() reporting.

(It is possible to have a factor with missing values in both the values and the levels but it requires some explicit gymnastics and we don't recommend it.)

Usage

fct_na_value_to_level(f, level = NA)

fct_na_level_to_value(f, extra_levels = NULL)

Arguments

f: A factor (or character vector).
level: Optionally, instead of converting the NA values to an NA level, convert it to a level with this value.
extra_levels: Optionally, a character vector giving additional levels that should also be converted to NA values.

Examples

# Most factors store NAs in the values:
f1 <- fct(c("a", "b", NA, "c", "b", NA))
levels(f1)
#> [1] "a" "b" "c"
as.integer(f1)
#> [1]  1  2 NA  3  2 NA
is.na(f1)
#> [1] FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE

# But it's also possible to store them in the levels
f2 <- fct_na_value_to_level(f1)
levels(f2)
#> [1] "a" "b" "c" NA 
as.integer(f2)
#> [1] 1 2 4 3 2 4
is.na(f2)
#> [1] FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE FALSE

# If needed, you can convert back to NAs in the values:
f3 <- fct_na_level_to_value(f2)
levels(f3)
#> [1] "a" "b" "c"
as.integer(f3)
#> [1]  1  2 NA  3  2 NA
is.na(f3)
#> [1] FALSE FALSE  TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE