I have a factor instrumentF:
> instrumentF
[1] Guitar Drums Cello Harp
Levels: Cello Drums Guitar Harp
Let's say I extract one level of this factor using [].
> level2 = instrumentF[1]
> level2
[1] Guitar
Levels: Cello Drums Guitar Harp
How I can get the factor label Guitar from the factor object level2?
level2$level doesn't seem to work:
> Error in level2$level : $ operator is invalid for atomic vectors
Answer
Convert to character, see this example:
# factor variable example
instrumentF <- as.factor(c("Guitar", "Drums", "Cello", "Harp"))
instrumentF
# [1] Guitar Drums Cello Harp
# Levels: Cello Drums Guitar Harp
as.character(instrumentF)[ 1 ]
# [1] "Guitar"
See relevant post: Convert data.frame columns from factors to characters
Or subset the level:
# as levels are sorted alphabetically, we need to subset the 3rd one
levels(instrumentF)[ 3 ]
# [1] "Guitar"