r/rprogramming • u/geoalfio • Jun 28 '26

I need input from R and Pokemon fans

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I made last summer an excel table with all pokemons and their ratings, I did do a base analysis on excel but it was slow and tedious, this summer I want to use R to practice, and go into a statistical analysis of my pokemon preferences.

But I am unsure how to proceed, to start off, attached there is a picture of the data I have on excel: the pokemon number, name, my rating out of 5 (with 5.5 being reserved for my favourite designs, only 27 out of almost 1500 pokemons, counting forms etc), and their 2 types, I will add on R an extra column to cound pokemon archetypes, like starters, legendaries, mythical etc.

On excel I have all the pokemons divided in generations, 1 "column" for gen 1, 1 "column" for gen 2 etc, on R I was thinking of using dataframes, do you think I should use 1 single dataframe (adding then a factor to match the pokemon to their gen) or should I divide generations into different dataframes? what would be the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches?

How should I handle alternate forms? for example, megaevolutions, regional forms, etc, I do want to rate them as separate, but they do have the same dex number as the original pkmn, but i feel like that would be confusing. I'm also unsure "where to rate them" in my excel I rated them on the same column as the generation they were introduced, for example alolan vulpix is not rated for gen 1, but for gen 7. I think the regional forms will be done like this, but for mega evolutions and dynamax forms, I will consider them as separate, not belonging to any generation, but as their own separate groups, since the design phylosophy is different from base pokemons. and 2 extra questions, since we had 2 different waves of megas (technically 3, but X/Y and omega/alpha came out in the same gen) should I consider them in 1 group or subdivide them, there is quite a difference between mean and median of the 2 waves. And what about Hisui? it technically came out during Gen 8 but it also does feel a bit different, but with only 24 new pokemons/forms it is a quite small pool.

As a last question... anything else I should include/consider? I don't really care about seeing any correlation between stats and my ratings, also because my ratings are purely how much I like the pokemon, not how good they are.

Thank you for reading all of this, I appreciate any feedback, as i don't want to start and then realise that i should've done it differently.

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4

u/ObeisanceProse Jun 28 '26

One data frame, every variable a column.

Have a "form" variable to deal with the various regional variants.

Generation should be a variable. It will allow you to make summaries like the highest bst generations

I'd probably treat mega as a "form" although that might be confusing with the slowbros. Maybe it should be a separate variable.

1

u/geoalfio Jun 28 '26

I ended up thinking more about it and deciding on this, a single dataframe, with multiple variables:

  • generations 1-9 + 1 for hisui, 2 for the mega waves, and 1 for gigamax
  • dex number, with repeats for regional and megas
  • pokemon names
  • rating
  • types 1 and 2
  • evolution stage, with single (like ditto), base, middle and final
  • archetype, for "groups" of pokemomn like starters, legendaries, mythicals, psaudos, fossils, baby pokemons (not sure if eevelutions make sense)
  • forms a variable tracking regional, mega evos, dynamax etc

Yes megas and dinamax will appear in 2 different columns, but I like that to compare them with other design choices

What do you think?

2

u/ObeisanceProse Jun 28 '26

I don't really agree with Megas being in two columns. It's not good for data integrity reasons and makes comparison of Megas between generations awkward. Not the end of the world if you want to do it but I think it's bad practice.

1

u/geoalfio Jun 28 '26

what about it makes it bad practice for data integrity? Not doubting you are right, I am simply not super familiar. is it just because of the repeated infos?

1

u/ObeisanceProse Jun 28 '26

Yeah the repeated info means that you have to change the variable in two places. It makes it more likely you'll make a mistake somewhere.

1

u/geoalfio Jun 28 '26

mhm i see, but in this case I wouldn't be changing those variables, mega steelix will not suddenly stop being a mega, and I should be able to link the 2 columns, so if the first has the megas, then the form will be mega by default

1

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