Hi R helpers, I have a data frame and I want to change the column names to names I have held in another data frame, but I am having difficulty. All data framnes are large so i can't input manually. Below is what i have tried so far: df<-data.frame(a=1:5, b=2:6, d=3:7, e=4:8) coltitles<-data.frame(v1="col number one", v2="col number two", v3="col number three", v4="col number four") ##first attempt names(df)<-coltitles names(df) [1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###not what i wanted as I want names(df) to return [1] "col number one" "col number two" "col number three" "col number four" ##second attempt coltitles<-as.vector(coltitles, mode="character") ##trying to convert to a character vector after looking at help is.vector(coltitles) [1] TRUE names(df)<-coltitles names(df) [1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###again not what I wanted How can I convert the column names? Thanks in advance, Tom Beyond Hotmail - see what else you can do with Windows Live. Find out more. _________________________________________________________________ [[alternative HTML version deleted]]
On 7/15/2009 10:35 AM, Tom Liptrot wrote:> > > > Hi R helpers, > > I have a data frame and I want to change the column names to names I have held in another data frame, but I am having difficulty. All data framnes are large so i can't input manually. Below is what i have tried so far: > > df<-data.frame(a=1:5, b=2:6, d=3:7, e=4:8) > coltitles<-data.frame(v1="col number one", v2="col number two", v3="col number three", v4="col number four")It would be simpler to use coltitles <- c((v1="col number one", v2="col number two", v3="col number three", v4="col number four") (and the v1=, v2=, etc. are redundant). Then your first attempt would work.> > ##first attempt > > names(df)<-coltitles > names(df) > [1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###not what i wanted as I want names(df) to return [1] "col number one" "col number two" "col number three" "col number four"If you are taking titles from one data frame to put on another as in your original code, then use names(df) <- names(coltitles) Duncan Murdoch> > > ##second attempt > > coltitles<-as.vector(coltitles, mode="character") ##trying to convert to a character vector after looking at help > is.vector(coltitles) > [1] TRUE > names(df)<-coltitles > names(df) > [1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###again not what I wanted > > How can I convert the column names? > > Thanks in advance, > > Tom > > Beyond Hotmail - see what else you can do with Windows Live. Find out more. > _________________________________________________________________ > > > [[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.
On 7/15/2009 10:35 AM, Tom Liptrot wrote:> > > > Hi R helpers, > > I have a data frame and I want to change the column names to names I have held in another data frame, but I am having difficulty. All data framnes are large so i can't input manually. Below is what i have tried so far: > > df<-data.frame(a=1:5, b=2:6, d=3:7, e=4:8) > coltitles<-data.frame(v1="col number one", v2="col number two", v3="col number three", v4="col number four") > > ##first attempt > > names(df)<-coltitles > names(df) > [1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###not what i wanted as I want names(df) to return [1] "col number one" "col number two" "col number three" "col number four"Not sure if my first reply went out; it had an error in it, because I misread what you were trying to do. You want to assign a character vector as names. You can set it up like that originally using coltitles <- c("col number one", "col number two", "col number three", "col number four") and then your first attempt will work. If you need to get the names out of a dataframe, then use names(x) <- coltitles[1,] to select the first row (or select some other row if you want) of the dataframe to use as names. Duncan Murdoch> > ##second attempt > > coltitles<-as.vector(coltitles, mode="character") ##trying to convert to a character vector after looking at help > is.vector(coltitles) > [1] TRUE > names(df)<-coltitles > names(df) > [1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###again not what I wanted > > How can I convert the column names? > > Thanks in advance, > > Tom > > Beyond Hotmail - see what else you can do with Windows Live. Find out more. > _________________________________________________________________ > > > [[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.
On Wed, 2009-07-15 at 14:35 +0000, Tom Liptrot wrote:> > > > Hi R helpers, > > I have a data frame and I want to change the column names to names I have held in another data frame, but I am having difficulty. All data framnes are large so i can't input manually. Below is what i have tried so far: > > df<-data.frame(a=1:5, b=2:6, d=3:7, e=4:8) > coltitles<-data.frame(v1="col number one", v2="col number two", v3="col number three", v4="col number four") > > ##first attempt > > names(df)<-coltitles > names(df) > [1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###not what i wanted as I want names(df) to return [1] "col number one" "col number two" "col number three" "col number four" > > > > ##second attempt > > coltitles<-as.vector(coltitles, mode="character") ##trying to convert to a character vector after looking at help > is.vector(coltitles) > [1] TRUE > names(df)<-coltitles > names(df) > [1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###again not what I wanted > > How can I convert the column names?This seems a bit of a strange way to go about things, but if needs must:> names(df) <- unlist(coltitles) > dfcol number one col number two col number three col number four 1 1 2 3 4 2 2 3 4 5 3 3 4 5 6 4 4 5 6 7 5 5 6 7 8> names(df)[1] "col number one" "col number two" "col number three" "col number four" If your data frame with the names in the one (and only) row (why store this as a one row df and not a character vector??? [1]) then by unlisting it we get a (or something that can be coerced to) a character vector of the correct names. If coltitles contains more rows, then: names(df) <- unlist(coltitles[1,]) might be more appropriate. HTH G [1] Your df storage of names is soooo inefficient (for this task):> object.size(names(df)) # after running the above code312 bytes> object.size(coltitles)2728 bytes> > Thanks in advance, > > Tom > > Beyond Hotmail - see what else you can do with Windows Live. Find out more. > _________________________________________________________________ > > > [[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.-- %~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~% Dr. Gavin Simpson [t] +44 (0)20 7679 0522 ECRC, UCL Geography, [f] +44 (0)20 7679 0565 Pearson Building, [e] gavin.simpsonATNOSPAMucl.ac.uk Gower Street, London [w] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfagls/ UK. WC1E 6BT. [w] http://www.freshwaters.org.uk %~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%~%
Try names(df) <- as.vector(unlist(coltitles)) This will fail if you have more than one row in your data frame coltitles. Which is why Duncan Murdoch's second email has a better solution. Given the difficulty in getting the titles out of the data frame in vector form, I would wonder why you're storing them as data in a data frame in the first place. Note also that the default behavior when creating a dataframe is for character data to be converted to factors. You can see this with> class(coltitles$v1)[1] "factor" That's part of what gave you weird results. So I would suggest looking at the help pages to figure out how to prevent conversion to factor. If you want names(df) to return "col number one" etc, then you have to create a data frame whose column names are those. You created a dataframe (coltitles) whose names were "v1", "v2", etc. For example,> tmp <- data.frame("col number one"=1, "col number >two"='foobar',check.names=FALSE) > names(tmp)[1] "col number one" "col number two" But simpler and easier to just do as Duncan suggested, and create a vector of names. -Don At 2:35 PM +0000 7/15/09, Tom Liptrot wrote:>Hi R helpers, > >I have a data frame and I want to change the column names to names I >have held in another data frame, but I am having difficulty. All >data framnes are large so i can't input manually. Below is what i >have tried so far: > >df<-data.frame(a=1:5, b=2:6, d=3:7, e=4:8) >coltitles<-data.frame(v1="col number one", v2="col number two", >v3="col number three", v4="col number four") > >##first attempt > >names(df)<-coltitles >names(df) >[1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###not what i wanted as I want names(df) to >return [1] "col number one" "col number two" "col number three" "col >number four" > > > >##second attempt > >coltitles<-as.vector(coltitles, mode="character") ##trying to >convert to a character vector after looking at help >is.vector(coltitles) >[1] TRUE >names(df)<-coltitles >names(df) >[1] "1" "1" "1" "1" ###again not what I wanted > >How can I convert the column names? > >Thanks in advance, > >Tom > >Beyond Hotmail - see what else you can do with Windows Live. Find out more. >_________________________________________________________________ > > > [[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.-- -------------------------------------- Don MacQueen Environmental Protection Department Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Livermore, CA, USA 925-423-1062