Create Calculation: Non-numeric argument to binary operator error raised when referencing column with spaces

Problem

I’m encountering the following error while using the create calculation:

Error in mutate(., Remainder = "Actual Value" - forecasted_value) : 
  ℹ In argument: `Remainder = "Actual Value" - forecasted_value`.
Caused by error in `"Actual Value" - forecasted_value`:
! non-numeric argument to binary operator

The issue occurs when I try to create a new column Remainder by subtracting forecasted_value from "Actual Value". The error message indicates that there’s a problem with using a non-numeric argument in a binary operation (-).

Solution

The problem is due to "Actual Sales" being treated as a character string (a literal), not as a column name in the data frame. In R, enclosing something in double quotes makes it a character, not a variable or column reference.

To reference a column with spaces in its name, you should use backticks instead of quotes. Here’s the corrected code:

`Actual Value` - forecasted_value

Using backticks tells R to interpret Actual Sales as the column name rather than a string. Make sure both Actual Value and forecasted_value are numeric; otherwise, you might run into the same error due to data types.