R help - May 2011 - rbind with partially overlapping column names

Hello,

I would like to merge two data frames with partially overlapping column
names with an rbind-like operation.

For the follow data frames,

df1 <-
data.frame(a=c("A","A"),b=c("B","B"))
df2 <-
data.frame(b=c("b","b"),c=c("c","c"))

I would like the output frame to be (with NAs where the frames don't
overlap)

a      b     c
A     B     NA
A     B     NA
NA   b     c
NA   b     c

I am familiar with ?merge and ?rbind, but neither seem to offer a means to
accomplish this.

Thanks in advance.

Jonathan

	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]

Hi:

This is a bit of a kluge, but works for your test case:
> df2[,setdiff(names(df1),names(df2))] <- NA
> df1[,setdiff(names(df2),names(df1))] <- NA
> df3 <- rbind(df1,df2)
> df3
a b c
1 A B <NA>
2 A B <NA>
3 <NA> b c
4 <NA> b c

-Ian


On 5/15/11 7:41 PM, "Jonathan Flowers" <jonathanmflowers at
gmail.com> wrote:
>Hello,
>
>I would like to merge two data frames with partially overlapping column
>names with an rbind-like operation.
>
>For the follow data frames,
>
>df1 <-
data.frame(a=c("A","A"),b=c("B","B"))
>df2 <-
data.frame(b=c("b","b"),c=c("c","c"))
>
>I would like the output frame to be (with NAs where the frames don't
>overlap)
>
>a      b     c
>A     B     NA
>A     B     NA
>NA   b     c
>NA   b     c
>
>I am familiar with ?merge and ?rbind, but neither seem to offer a means to
>accomplish this.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Jonathan
>
>	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
>
>______________________________________________
>R-help at r-project.org mailing list
>https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
>PLEASE do read the posting guide
>http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
>and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org 
> [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Jonathan Flowers
> Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2011 5:41 PM
> To: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: [R] rbind with partially overlapping column names
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I would like to merge two data frames with partially 
> overlapping column
> names with an rbind-like operation.
> 
> For the follow data frames,
> 
> df1 <-
data.frame(a=c("A","A"),b=c("B","B"))
> df2 <-
data.frame(b=c("b","b"),c=c("c","c"))
> 
> I would like the output frame to be (with NAs where the frames don't
> overlap)
> 
> a      b     c
> A     B     NA
> A     B     NA
> NA   b     c
> NA   b     c
> 
> I am familiar with ?merge and ?rbind, but neither seem to 
> offer a means to
> accomplish this.
What is wrong with merge(all=TRUE,...)?
  > merge(df1,df2,all=TRUE)
    b    a    c
  1 B    A <NA>
  2 B    A <NA>
  3 b <NA>    c
  4 b <NA>    c
Rearrange the columns if that is necessary
  > merge(df1,df2,all=TRUE)[c("a","b","c")]
       a b    c
  1    A B <NA>
  2    A B <NA>
  3 <NA> b    c
  4 <NA> b    c

Bill Dunlap
Spotfire, TIBCO Software
wdunlap tibco.com 
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> 	[[alternative HTML version deleted]]
> 
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at r-project.org mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide 
> http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
> and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.
>