Invalid factor level, NA generated warning [duplicate]

Question

Similar to another question asked on here, I get the error message in the subject line. I attempted to use it's remedy to fix my problem but I was not able to do so. Here is my code:

#Change the format of IED deaths to be uniform
USdata$Cause[USdata$Cause=="Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack" | USdata$Cause=="Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack (suicide attack)" | USdata$Cause=="Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack (suicide car bomb)" | USdata$Cause=="Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack (while defusing)" | USdata$Cause=="Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack, RPG" | USdata$Cause=="Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack, RPG, small arms fire" | USdata$Cause=="Hostile - hostile fire - IED Attack, small arms fire" | USdata$Cause=="Hostile - hostile fire - IED Attack, small arms fire, indirect fire"] <- "Hostile - IED Attack"

Warning message:
In `[<-.factor`(`*tmp*`, USdata$Cause == "Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack" |  :
 invalid factor level, NA generated

I see when I do a summary of my attempted new value, "Hostile - IED Attack", I get everything returned as NA's. I was able to do something similar with other values but this one isn't working so easily. Thanks.

Answer 1

Convert it from a factor first, do the change and re-convert it back. Also, %in% might work better for you in the long run:

ied_causes <- c("Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack",
                "Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack (suicide attack)",
                "Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack (suicide car bomb)",
                "Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack (while defusing)",
                "Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack, RPG",
                "Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack, RPG, small arms fire",
                "Hostile - hostile fire - IED Attack, small arms fire",
                "Hostile - hostile fire - IED Attack, small arms fire, indirect fire")

USdata$Cause <- as.character(USdata$Cause)
USdata$Cause[USdata$Cause %in% ied_causes] <- "Hostile - IED Attack"
USdata$Cause <- factor(USdata$Cause)