How to Convert Factor to Character in R?

In this article, we will discuss how to convert the Factor Class to the character Class in the R Programming Language.

Method 1: Convert a Single Factor Vector to Character Vector

To convert a single factor vector to a character vector we use the as.character() function of the R Language and pass the required factor vector as an argument. 

Syntax:

 character_vector <- as.character( Factor_vector )

Example:

Here, in this example, we have converted a factor vector to a character vector by using as.character() function.

Output:

Input vector:
Geeks for Geek 
Input Data Class:
factor
Output vector:
 "Geeks" "for" "Geek"
Output Data Class:
character

Method 2: Convert Factor vector columns to Character vector columns in a data frame

To convert a known factor vector to a character vector we create a duplicate copy of the input data frame. Then use the as.character() function of the R Language and pass the required factor vector column of the data frame as an argument.

Syntax:

Output$factor_vector_column <- as.character( Output$factor_vector_column )

Example:

Here, in this example, we have converted a factor vector column to a character vector column by using as.character() function.

Output:

Input vector:
 x y
1 Geeks 1
2 for 2
3 Geek 3
Input Data Class:
factor
Output vector:
 x y
1 Geeks 1
2 for 2
3 Geek 3
Output Data Class:
character

Method 3: Convert Factor vector columns to Character vector columns in a data frame where Columns are unknown

To convert a known factor vector to a character vector we create a duplicate copy of the input data frame. Then use is.factor() conditional statement to find the columns that have data class factor. Then use the as.character() function of the R Language and pass the identified factor vector column of the data frame as an argument.

Syntax:

factor_columns <- sapply(Output, is.factor) 
Output[factor_columns] <- lapply(Output[factor_columns], as.character)

Example:

Here, in this example, we have converted all factor vector columns to character vector columns by using as.character() function identified by is.factor() conditional statement.

Output:

Input dataframe:
 x y z
1 Geeks 1 Complete
2 for 2 Interview
3 Geek 3 Preparation
Input Data Class:
 x y z 
"factor" "numeric" "factor" 
Output dataframe: 
 x y z
1 Geeks 1 Complete
2 for 2 Interview
3 Geek 3 Preparation
Output Data Class:
 x y z 
"character" "numeric" "character" 

Method 4: Convert all columns of the Data frame into character

To convert all columns of the data frame into the character we use apply() function with as.character parameter. The lapply() function applies the given function to the provided data frame.

Syntax:

dataframe <- lapply(dataframe, as.character)

Example:

Here, in this example, we have converted all columns of the data frame to character vector columns by using as.character function using lapply() function.

Output:

Input dataframe:
 x y z
1 Geeks 1 Complete
2 for 2 Interview
3 Geek 3 Preparation
Input Data Class:
 x y z 
"character" "numeric" "factor" 
Output dataframe: 
$x
[1] "Geeks" "for" "Geek" 
$y
[1] "1" "2" "3"
$z
[1] "Complete" "Interview" "Preparation"
Output Data Class:
 x y z 
"character" "character" "character"