R Error in x$ed : $ operator is invalid for atomic vectors

R Error in x$ed : $ operator is invalid for atomic vectors

From the help file about $ (See ?$) you can read:

$ is only valid for recursive objects, and is only discussed in the section below on recursive objects.

Now, lets check whether x is recursive

> is.recursive(x)
[1] FALSE

A recursive object has a list-like structure. A vector is not recursive, it is an atomic object instead, lets check

> is.atomic(x)
[1] TRUE

Therefore you get an error when applying $ to a vector (non-recursive object), use [ instead:

> x[ed]
ed 
 2 

You can also use getElement

> getElement(x, ed)
[1] 2

The reason you are getting this error is that you have a vector.

If you want to use the $ operator, you simply need to convert it to a data.frame. But since you only have one row in this particular case, you would also need to transpose it; otherwise bob and ed will become your row names instead of your column names which is what I think you want.

x <- c(1, 2)
x
names(x) <- c(bob, ed)
x <- as.data.frame(t(x))
x$ed
[1] 2

R Error in x$ed : $ operator is invalid for atomic vectors

Because $ does not work on atomic vectors. Use [ or [[ instead. From the help file for $:

The default methods work somewhat differently for atomic vectors, matrices/arrays and for recursive (list-like, see is.recursive) objects. $ is only valid for recursive objects, and is only discussed in the section below on recursive objects.

x[[ed]] will work.