I want to change few specific column names of a data frame using dplyr's pipe. Below is one such example -
library(dplyr)
head(mtcars)
Now let say, I want to change 2nd and 3rd column names to "a" and "b" respectively. Trivially, I could do it as
colnames(mtcars)[2] <- "a"
colnames(mtcars)[3] <- "b"
However I want to do it using pipe and in a single line to enhance readability.
Any suggestion how should I do it?
Many thanks for your time.
With tidyverse, we can use rename_with
library(dplyr)
mtcars <- mtcars %>%
rename_with(~ c('a', 'b'), 2:3)
names(mtcars)
#[1] "mpg" "a" "b" "hp" "drat" "wt" "qsec" "vs" "am" "gear" "carb"
We could use replace with names<-
head(mtcars) %>%
`names<-`(replace(names(.), 2:3, c('a', 'b')))
-output
# mpg a b hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
#Mazda RX4 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
#Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
#Datsun 710 22.8 4 108 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1
#Hornet 4 Drive 21.4 6 258 110 3.08 3.215 19.44 1 0 3 1
#Hornet Sportabout 18.7 8 360 175 3.15 3.440 17.02 0 0 3 2
#Valiant 18.1 6 225 105 2.76 3.460 20.22 1 0 3 1
If you don't mind using data.table, then here is another option besides dplyr
setnames(as.data.table(mtcars), 2:3, c("a", "b"))[]
We could simply use select:
library(dplyr)
mtcars1 <- mtcars %>%
select(1, a=2, b=3, everything())
Output:
> colnames(mtcars)
[1] "mpg" "cyl" "disp" "hp" "drat" "wt" "qsec" "vs" "am" "gear" "carb"
> colnames(mtcars1)
[1] "mpg" "a" "b" "hp" "drat" "wt" "qsec" "vs" "am" "gear" "carb"