my $data = "subj1 high 13 subj1 low 15 subj2 high 12 subj2 low 15 subj3 high 16 subj3 low 17 subj4 high 11 subj4 low 18 "; my $R = Statistics::R->new(); $R->startR; R->send(qq`data <- read.table($data, header = false), sep = "")`); R->send(qq`names(data) <- c("Subj","Cond","Count")`); R->send(qq`attach(data)`); R->send(qq`$Cond <- as.factor($Cond)`);