Make Frequency Histogram for Factor Variables

categorical-data, histogram, r

Solution

It seems like you want `barplot(prop.table(table(animals)))`:

However, this is not a histogram.

Problem

I am very new to R, so I apologize for such a basic question. I spent an hour googling this issue, but couldn't find a solution. Say I have some categorical data in my data set about common pet types. I input it as a character vector in R that contains the names of different types of animals. I created it like this: ``` animals <- c("cat", "dog", "dog", "dog", "dog", "dog", "dog", "dog", "cat", "cat", "bird") ``` I turn it into a factor for use with other vectors in my data frame: ``` animalFactor <- as.factor(animals) ``` I now want to create a histogram that shows the frequency of each variable on the y-axis, the name of each factor on the x-axis, and contains one bar for each factor. I attempt this code: ``` hist(table(animalFactor), freq=TRUE, xlab = levels(animalFactor), ylab = "Frequencies") ``` The output is absolutely nothing like I'd expect. Labeling problems aside, I can't seem to figure out how to create a simple frequency histogram by category.

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