R Error : invalid (do_set) left-hand side to assignment (2 Examples)

This tutorial shows how to deal with the “Error in X : invalid (do_set) left-hand side to assignment” in R programming.

The tutorial is structured as follows:

You’re here for the answer, so let’s get straight to the R code!

Example 1: Replicate the Error in X : invalid (do_set) left-hand side to assignment

In this example, I’ll show how to reproduce the “Error in X : invalid (do_set) left-hand side to assignment”.

Let’s assume that we want to assign the value 5 to a new data object. Then we might try to use the following R syntax:

5 <- 5                     # Try to assign value
# Error in 5 <- 5 : invalid (do_set) left-hand side to assignment

Unfortunately, the RStudio console returns the “Error in X : invalid (do_set) left-hand side to assignment” after executing the previous R code.

The reason for this is that it is not possible to assign a value to a number (i.e. 5).

So let’s resolve this problem!

Example 2: Prevent the Error in X : invalid (do_set) left-hand side to assignment

The R programming syntax below illustrates how to fix the “Error in X : invalid (do_set) left-hand side to assignment”.

For this, we need to specify a valid name for the new data object that we want to create:

x <- 5                     # Properly assign value
x                          # Print assigned value
# [1] 5

The previous R code has assigned the value 5 to the new data object x. No errors have been returned!

Video & Further Resources

Some time ago, I have published a video on my YouTube channel, which shows the R syntax of this tutorial. You can find the video below.

The YouTube video will be added soon.

Furthermore, you might want to have a look at the other tutorials on my website.

• Error in .subset(x, j) : invalid subscript type ‘list’
• Error in file(file, “rt”) : invalid ‘description’ argument (read.table & csv)
• How to Fix the R Error in stripchart.default(x1, …) : invalid plotting method
• Solving Error & Warning Messages in R (Overview)
• R Programming Overview

In this R tutorial you have learned how to handle the “Error in X : invalid (do_set) left-hand side to assignment”. In case you have further questions, please let me know in the comments.