title: R rename nomial variable numeric function
body: <p>Is there a function in R that takes a column of nominal variables (more than two) and assigns a numeric value.  The values in the column are unknown, however I can give you a taste of what they are.  Alternatively, I was considering deleting this column however the dataset "Occupation" could be a handy column to keep.  Need to do this so I can process the table using "Gowers" method. Data I am analysing come from <a href="http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/machine-learning-databases/credit-screening/crx.data" rel="nofollow noreferrer">here</a></p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt; [1] w q q w w m
  &gt;
  Levels: aa c cc d e ff i j k m q r w x
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Hopefully I've explained that well and cheers in advance for looking at my question</p>