Why is my code returning all NA's when I operate on a string in R?-CodePudding

Whenever I refer to any string data in my df it returns NA's as if that string does not exist but it's not a spelling error on my part.

I was doing some basic sorting functions on my data, all of which I've done before in the same R script on other datasets, and for some reason it is not recognizing my string data.

> head(Vg)
               Sp            key  value
1          Salal  Thinned _ CAR1 18.500
2        Bracken  Thinned _ CAR1  1.275
3 RedHuckleberry  Thinned _ CAR1  0.550
4      SwordFern  Thinned _ CAR1  0.500
5       DeerFern  Thinned _ CAR1  0.500
6       LadyFern  Thinned _ CAR1  0.000
> V_VON<-Vg[grepl("VON1",Vg$key),]
> V_VON<-V_VON[!V_VON$value==0,]
> V_VON
                        Sp             key     value
289                 Salal  Clearcut _ VON1  4.666667
290               Bracken  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
291        RedHuckleberry  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
292             SwordFern  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
293              DeerFern  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
295           Salmonberry  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
296      TrailingRasberry  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
297    TrailingBlackberry  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
302              RyeGrass  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
303 ThreeLeavedFoamFlower  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
305           BaldhipRose  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
307               UGrass1  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
316         Redwoodviolet  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
323              Fireweed  Clearcut _ VON1  0.500000
325                 Salal   Control _ VON1 60.000000
326               Bracken   Control _ VON1  0.500000
327        RedHuckleberry   Control _ VON1  0.500000
328             SwordFern   Control _ VON1  0.500000
> V_VON$key <- factor(V_VON$key, levels = c("Control_VON1","Clearcut_VON1"))
> V_VON
                        Sp  key     value
289                 Salal  <NA>  4.666667
290               Bracken  <NA>  0.500000
291        RedHuckleberry  <NA>  0.500000
292             SwordFern  <NA>  0.500000
293              DeerFern  <NA>  0.500000
295           Salmonberry  <NA>  0.500000
296      TrailingRasberry  <NA>  0.500000
297    TrailingBlackberry  <NA>  0.500000
302              RyeGrass  <NA>  0.500000
303 ThreeLeavedFoamFlower  <NA>  0.500000
305           BaldhipRose  <NA>  0.500000
307               UGrass1  <NA>  0.500000
316         Redwoodviolet  <NA>  0.500000
323              Fireweed  <NA>  0.500000
325                 Salal  <NA> 60.000000
326               Bracken  <NA>  0.500000
327        RedHuckleberry  <NA>  0.500000
328             SwordFern  <NA>  0.500000

I thought it might be some error with the underscore so I tried with values in the "Sp" column but the same thing happens.

> V_VON1 <- V_VON[V_VON$Sp=="Salal", ] 
> V_VON1
[1] Sp    key   value
<0 rows> (or 0-length row.names)

I can, however, operate normally on the numeric column.

> V_VON2 <- V_VON[V_VON$value==0.5,]
> V_VON2
                        Sp             key value
290               Bracken  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
291        RedHuckleberry  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
292             SwordFern  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
293              DeerFern  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
295           Salmonberry  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
296      TrailingRasberry  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
297    TrailingBlackberry  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
302              RyeGrass  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
303 ThreeLeavedFoamFlower  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
305           BaldhipRose  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
307               UGrass1  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
316         Redwoodviolet  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
323              Fireweed  Clearcut _ VON1   0.5
326               Bracken   Control _ VON1   0.5
327        RedHuckleberry   Control _ VON1   0.5
328             SwordFern   Control _ VON1   0.5

Any ideas what might be causing this? My only thought is maybe something with the grepl function because its the first time I've used it.

CodePudding user response：

There could be leading/lagging spaces which can be removed with trimws as == looks for fixed match

V_VON[trimws(V_VON$Sp)=="Salal", ]