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Is it possible in base R to replace multiple integers with corresponding strings like a dictionary?

January 9, 2023

Similar to this question: Replace multiple values in r but: I would like to only use base R and I would like to replace integers, so the named vector solution adopted as below does not work:

testing <- data.frame(
  var1 = c(1, 6, 17)
)

# this is not possible
dict <- c(
  1 = 'ICMP', 
  6 = 'TCP', 
  17 = 'UDP', 
)

testing$var1 <- dict[testing$var1]

I know I can do

testing$var1[testing$var1 == 1] <- "ICMP"
testing$var1[testing$var1 == 6] <- "TCP"
testing$var1[testing$var1 == 17] <- "UDP"

but isn’t there a more convenient way in base R?

>Solution :

# create named vector dict
dict <- c('ICMP', 'TCP', 'UDP')
names(dict) <- c(1,6,17)
# replace matching values
testing$var2 <- dict[as.character(testing$var1)]

#   var1 var2
# 1    1 ICMP
# 2    6  TCP
# 3   17  UDP