Creating new variable using conditions of two variables

[cladwa]

Hi,

I'm new to R programming and taking an online course to learn more. I've come across a problem that I can understand and was wondering if anyone can point me in the right direction and explain what I did wrong.

I'm trying to categorize my data variable hdl based on gender and hdl levels. I enter the code below

gender<-mydata$gender
hdlcat<-ifelse(gender="male" & hdl<40, "at risk",
ifelse(gender="male" & hdl>=40, "desirable",
ifelse(gender="female" & hdl<50, "at risk",
ifelse(gender="female" & hdl>=50, "desirable", NA))))

When I run the code I'm getting this error message:

hdlcat<-ifelse(gender="male" & hdl<40, "at risk",

•               ifelse(gender="male" & hdl>=40, "desirable",
  

•                   ifelse(gender="female" & hdl<50, "at risk",
  

•                          ifelse(gender="female" & hdl>=50, "desirable", NA)))))
  

Error in ifelse(gender = "male" & hdl < 40, "at risk", ifelse(gender = "male" & :
unused argument (gender = "male" & hdl < 40)

I don't quite understand this "unused argument (gender = "male" & hdl < 40)" and honestly I've tried random things to just get the code to work, but not understanding what I'm doing wrong?

Any help is appreciated

[cladwa]

So of course I think I figured it out after questioning what I did wrong, but I think I was just being way too detailed in my coding also the double "==" instead of "=". Please correct me if I am wrong but I used the following code and it worked :

hdlcat<-ifelse(hdl <40 & gender=="male", "at risk",
ifelse(hdl<50 & gender=="female", "at risk", "desirable")

[Sheba]

You're correct. when using ifelse statement, we need to use "==" instead of "=". You could also use mutate in tidyverse to new variables using conditions