as.character in R: How to Use as.character() Function

A character object in R is used to interpret string values. We convert R objects into character values with the as.character() function. The as.character() function is used to convert a numeric object to a character object.

as.character() in R

The as.character() is a built-in R function that generates a string representation of a provided argument. The as.character() function returns the string of 1’s and 0’s or a character vector of traits depending on the nature of the argument supplied.

Syntax

as.character(x)

Parameters

The as.character() function takes one argument x that is an object of class fingerprint, featvec, or feature.

Return Value

The as.character() function returns the string of 1’s and 0’s or a character vector of features.

Example

data <- as.character(3.14)
data

Output

[1] "3.14"

In this example, we passed the floating value as an argument, and as.character() function converts into a character vector.

Convert a numeric object to a character

To convert a numeric object to a character in R, use the as.character() function. To create a vector in R, use the c() function. We will create two numeric vectors and convert those vectors into characters.

data1 <- c(11, 21, 31, 41)
data2 <- c(-11, 21, 1.5, -31)

as.character(data1)
as.character(data2)

Output

[1] "11" "21" "31" "41"
[1] "-11" "21" "1.5" "-31"

How to check character type in R

To check the character type in R, use the is.character() function. The is.character() function returns TRUE if the argument is of character type; otherwise returns FALSE.

data1 <- 3.14
data2 <- c(-11, 21, 1.5, -31)

co1 <- as.character(data1)
co2 <- as.character(data2)

co1
co2

is.character(co1)
is.character(co2)

Output

[1] "3.14"
[1] "-11" "21" "1.5" "-31"
[1] TRUE
[1] TRUE

And we get the TRUE for both the output. So that means we successfully converted a numeric object to a character vector.

Conclusion

R as.character() function converts the provided argument to character type. The as.character() and is.character() methods are generic functions. That is it for this tutorial.