your.data <- data.frame(Symbol = c("IDEA","PFC","RPL","SOBHA"))
new.variable <- as.vector(your.data$Symbol) # this will create a character vector
VitoshKa suggested to use the following code.
new.variable.v <- your.data$Symbol # this will retain the factor nature of the vector
What you want depends on what you need. If you are using this vector for further analysis or plotting, retaining the factor nature of the vector is a sensible solution.
How these two methods differ:
#1 2 3 4
#IDEA PFC RPL SOBHA