[R] na_if: a type mismatch between the data in your factor variable and the value

GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?`<- na_if(GE_survey$'Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?',"i can't remember precisely")
Error in `na_if()`:
! Can't convert from `y` <character> to `x` <factor<3e5f2>> due to loss of generality.
• Locations: 1
Run `rlang::last_trace()` to see where the error occurred.

The error you're encountering is due to a type mismatch between the data in your factor variable and the value you're trying to replace with NA. The na_if function expects both the factor variable and the replacement value to be of the same type. In this case, your factor variable is of type factor, but the value "i can't remember precisely" is a character string.

To resolve this issue, you can first convert your factor variable to a character type, then use na_if, and finally convert it back to a factor if needed. Here's how you can do it:

# Convert the factor variable to character
GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?` <- as.character(GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?`)

# Use na_if to replace the specified value with NA
GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?` <- na_if(GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?`, "i can't remember precisely")

# (Optional) Convert back to factor if needed
GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?` <- factor(GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?`)

or: change the one to the factor

# Convert the value to a factor with the same levels as the variable
value_to_replace <- factor("i can't remember precisely", levels = levels(GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?`))

# Use na_if to replace the specified value with NA
GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?` <- na_if(GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?`, value_to_replace)

or: change the whole variable into a factor(Recommended)

If your variable is already a factor, you don't need to convert it to a factor again. However, if it's not a factor, you can indeed convert it to a factor first using as.factor and then use na_if to replace the specified value with NA. Here's how you can do it:

# Convert the variable to factor if it's not already a factor
GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?` <- as.factor(GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?`)

# Use na_if to replace the specified value with NA
GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?` <- na_if(GE_survey$`Q10_What was the average attendance of the GE course you were taking last semester, at the second half of the semester?`, "i can't remember precisely")