sorting of month in matrix in R -

i have matrix in format:

    year    month    freq 1   2014    april    466 2   2015    april    59535 3   2014    august   10982 4   2015    august   0 5   2014    december 35881 6   2015    december 0 7   2014    february 17 8   2015    february 24258 9   2014    january  0 10  2015    january  22785 11  2014    july     2981 12  2015    july     0 13  2014    june     1279 14  2015    june     31356 15  2014    march    289 16  2015    march    40274  

i need sort months on basis of occurrence i.e jan, feb, mar... when sort gets sorted on basis of first alphabet. used this:

mat <- mat[order(mat[,1], decreasing = true), ] 

and looks :

row.names   april   august  december    february    january july    june    march   may     november    october september 1   2015    59535   0       0           24258       22785   0       31356   40274   84211   0           0       0  2   2014    466     10982   35881       17          0       2981    1279    289     879     8911        8565    4000 

can sort months on basis of occurrence in r ?

suppose df data frame derived matrix. provide such data frame in reproducible form @ end. ensure month , year factors appropriate levels. note month.name builtin variable in r used here ensure month levels appropriately sorted , have assumed year numeric column. use levelplot this:

df2 <- transform(df,         month = factor(as.character(month), levels = month.name),         year = factor(year)       )  library(lattice) levelplot(freq ~ year * month, df2) 

note: here df in reproducible form:

lines <- "    year    month    freq 1   2014    april    466 2   2015    april    59535 3   2014    august   10982 4   2015    august   0 5   2014    december 35881 6   2015    december 0 7   2014    february 17 8   2015    february 24258 9   2014    january  0 10  2015    january  22785 11  2014    july     2981 12  2015    july     0 13  2014    june     1279 14  2015    june     31356 15  2014    march    289 16  2015    march    40274 " df <- read.table(text = lines, header = true)