what is the function of the factor command in R code example

Example: what is factor in r programming

# Create a vector as input.
data <- c("East","West","East","North","North","East","West","West","West","East","North")

print(data)
print(is.factor(data))

# Apply the factor function.
factor_data <- factor(data)

print(factor_data)
print(is.factor(factor_data))