R rename nomial variable numeric function

Question

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 here

> [1] w q q w w m
>
Levels: aa c cc d e ff i j k m q r w x

Hopefully I've explained that well and cheers in advance for looking at my question

Answer 1

This is code I used it in the end for Occupation re-scaling between 0 and 1, hope this can be of use to someone else. Not 100% certain this is the correct labels but at least give you a guide on changing "factor" levels in R.

Data$Occupation <- factor(Data$Occupation, 
                   levels = c("aa", "c",  "cc", "d",  "e",  "ff", "i",  "j",  "k",  "m",  "q",  "r",  "w",  "x"),
                   labels = c(0, 0.07692307692307692308, 0.08333333333333333333, 0.09090909090909090909, 
                              0.1, 0.11111111111111111111, 0.125, 0.14285714285714285714,
                              0.16666666666666666667, 0.2, 0.25, 0.33333333333333333333, 0.5, 1))