If I try to reshape a data frame into a long format with more than one
column it seems to mix up the column headings (or the columns, depending on
how you look at it). For example:> d <-
data.frame(row=1:2,b.1=c("1b1","2b1"),b.2=c("1b2","2b2"),a.1=c("1a1","2a1"),a.2=c("1a2","2a2"))> d
row b.1 b.2 a.1 a.2
1 1 1b1 1b2 1a1 1a2
2 2 2b1 2b2 2a1 2a2
If I try reshape on this, the column headings are over the wrong
columns:> reshape(d,direction="long",idvar="row",varying=2:5)
row time b a
1.1 1 1 1a1 1b1
2.1 2 1 2a1 2b1
1.2 1 2 1a2 1b2
2.2 2 2 2a2 2b2
If I reorder the columns, so the "a" columns come first, it reverses
the
column names and gives the right result.> e <- d[,c(1,4,5,2,3)]
> reshape(e,direction="long",idvar="row",varying=2:5)
row time a b
1.1 1 1 1a1 1b1
2.1 2 1 2a1 2b1
1.2 1 2 1a2 1b2
2.2 2 2 2a2 2b2
I can also get the right result if I specify the "varying" parameter
more
explicitly:>
reshape(d,direction="long",idvar="row",varying=list(names(d)[2:3],names(d)[4:5]))
row time b.1 a.1
1.1 1 1 1b1 1a1
2.1 2 1 2b1 2a1
1.2 1 2 1b2 1a2
2.2 2 2 2b2 2a2
I'm using R 2.4.1 on Windows XP.
Am I doing something wrong? Is it supposed to work like this?
Thanks, Ian
