One option is to create a separate data frame that only includes the columns you want to analyze numerically. You can then convert those columns to numeric and perform your analysis on this new data frame. Once you have completed your analysis, you can merge the numeric data with your original data frame so that you can maintain the rest of your data.

For example:

create a new data frame with only the columns to analyze numerically

numericdata <- mydata[, c("numericcol1", "numericcol2")]

convert columns to numeric

numericdata$numericcol1 <- as.numeric(numericdata$numericcol1) numericdata$numericcol2 <- as.numeric(numericdata$numericcol2)

perform analysis on numeric_data

analysisresults <- someanalysisfunction(numericdata)

merge analysis results with original data

mydata <- cbind(mydata, analysis_results)

This approach allows you to maintain the rest of your data while still being able to perform numeric analysis on a subset of your columns.