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R in 3 Months (Spring 2025)

Factors in R

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Hilde Karlsen

Hilde Karlsen • October 14, 2024

I absolutely love this video! I don't know who the teacher is, but her way of explaining factors versus character strings is so pedagogical. The entire video is very pedagogical, by the way.

I also appreciate that she's demonstrating the difference between using the same variable/arguments for both the fill (legend) and the x-axis. This is incredibly helpful because I struggle with setting the fill/legend correctly. I often wonder what the legend should be when I'm using specific x and y variables.

Thank you so much for this video. Please pass along my compliments to the teacher if you're still in touch with her.<3

Gracielle Higino

Gracielle Higino Coach • October 16, 2024

I'm glad this was helpful, Hilde! Do you think that's what you were looking for? I think this shows a way to set the labels to your variables without using labelled data =D Down the road we can practice how to implement these things in a function so you don't need to do it manually every time. I did send your compliments to Libby, she's really a star ✨

Hilde Karlsen

Hilde Karlsen • October 16, 2024

Thank you for sending my compliments to Libby, Gracielle, that means a lot! <3

When it comes to what I am looking for and if this video gave me what I was looking for, I think the answer is both yes and no.

Yes because - as you say it shows a way to set labels to variables without using labelled data, which is good! :-)

No because - I really want to be able to automate the process even more (write fewer lines of code/write code that is not repeating itself, i.e. "dry" code), and as you say, implementing this as a function is what I am really looking for! I would love to be able to write better functions. I have written some functions, but they have mostly been "wrappers" around other functions, such as passing some variables into a ggplot that has a certain look, or passing some variables into a correlation plot/heatmap that has a certain look.

So I am really looking forward to learning more about functions! But if you have some more videos by Libby on your server/in your database, I would absolutely love to see them, because her way of explaining things and giving examples pairs very well with my way of learning and remembering. :-)

Gracielle Higino

Gracielle Higino Coach • October 17, 2024

Exactly! Let's get to the function lesson week and we can work together on it! But keep in mind that "lines of code" is not a metric for good code. Sometimes it's ok to write "essays" of code, as long as you're not repeating yourself. Functions tend to be long because they try to do a lot a once, but you only need to write them once, store them in a separate script, and re-use them as often as you need with a single line of code - which is beautiful.

Hilde Karlsen

Hilde Karlsen • October 17, 2024

Ah, I take note of what you are saying, as that makes sense! Thank you for pointing that out to me! I want to write clear and understandable code (and well documented code), and not repeat myself :-)

Sara Parisi

Sara Parisi • October 17, 2024

Thanks for posting this! Really helpful video.

Gracielle Higino

Gracielle Higino Coach • October 17, 2024

YAY! I'm glad it helped you, Sara!

Mike LeVan

Mike LeVan • May 28, 2025

This was great! Really helped my understanding of factors and how to order them. Kudos to Libby!

Course Content

127 Lessons