When I run colnames(), it never shows the name of this first column.
For example, after wasting a lot of time researching online, I discovered the name of the first column in mtcars is das_Auto.
Why doesn't this name show when I run this code?
[colnames(mtcars)][1]
What's the easiest way to determine the name of the first column in a data set?
This is because the first 'column' of mtcars is not actually a column but an index. If you want to convert it to a column you can run the below:
df <- cbind(das_Auto = rownames(mtcars), mtcars)
rownames(df) <- 1:nrow(mtcars)
head(df)
das_Auto mpg cyl disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
1 Mazda RX4 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
2 Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
3 Datsun 710 22.8 4 108 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1
4 Hornet 4 Drive 21.4 6 258 110 3.08 3.215 19.44 1 0 3 1
5 Hornet Sportabout 18.7 8 360 175 3.15 3.440 17.02 0 0 3 2
6 Valiant 18.1 6 225 105 2.76 3.460 20.22 1 0 3 1