Rename the column name in R can be accomplished by using Dplyr. Dplyr package in R is provided with rename() function which renames the column name or column variable. columns can be renamed using the family of of rename() functions like rename_if(), rename_at() and rename_all(), which can be used for different criteria. These functions serves different purposes ranging from renaming a single column, renaming multiple column at once, rename based on a pattern matching and also based on some specific condition.
- rename() – rename the old column name with a new name.
- Rename multiple column at once using rename() function.
- rename a column name like/starts with using rename_at() function
- rename a column name on a specific condition using rename_if() function in R.
- rename by replacing a specific pattern using rename_all() function in R
syntax of the rename() function:
- new_name = new column name
- old_name = old column name
We will be using Orange data to depict the rename of column variable.
Rename the column name in R using rename() function :
Rename the column name using rename function in dplyr. rename() function takes dataframe as argument followed by new_name = old_name.
library(dplyr) # Rename the column name of the dataframe Orange_df = rename(Orange, Life_of_tree = age) Orange_df
Rename the column name “age” with “Life_of_tree”.
Rename Multiple column at once using rename() function:
Renaming the multiple columns at once can be accomplished using rename() function. rename() function takes dataframe as argument followed by new_name = old_name. we will be passing the column names to be replaced in a vector as shown below.
library(dplyr) # Rename multiple columns of the dataframe at once Orange_df <- rename(Orange, c(Tree_type = Tree, Tree_life = age , Tree_circumcirle =circumference )) Orange_df
we will Rename the all the column name at once so the resultant renamed dataframe will be
Rename the column name in R using Dplyr pipe operator (%>%) :
Rename the column name using rename function along with pipe operator in dplyr. rename() function takes following rename condition new_name = old_name.
library(dplyr) # Rename the column name of the dataframe Orange_df = Orange %>% rename(Life_of_tree = age) Orange_df
Rename the column name “age” with “Life_of_tree”
Rename like using rename_at() function dplyr R:
Rename a specific column that starts with certain character. In our Example we will rename the Column that starts with “T”. This is accomplished by using rename_at() function along with str_replace() Function as shown below.
library(dplyr)
library(stringr)
# Rename the column name of the dataframe
Orange_df = Orange %>% rename_at(vars(starts_with("T")),
funs(str_replace(., "Tree", "Tree_Type")))
Rename the column name “Tree” with “Tree_Type”
Rename a column with condition using rename_if() function in dplyr R:
Renaming a specific column which satisfies certain condition can be done using rename_if() function . In our Example we will rename the Column only if it is numeric. This is accomplished by using rename_if() function along with is.numeric() and str_replace() Function as shown below.
library(dplyr) library(stringr) # Rename the column name of the dataframe Orange_df = Orange %>% rename_if(is.numeric, funs(str_replace(., "age", "tree_life"))) Orange_df
Rename the column name “age” with “tree_life”
Rename all the occurrence of a column using rename_all() function
Renaming all the occurrences of a column which satisfies the specific pattern can be done using rename_all() function followed by pattern and followed by replacement character . In our Example we will rename the Column which has “e” as “E” for all the occurrences. This is accomplished by using rename_all() function along with str_replace_all() Function as shown below.
library(dplyr) library(stringr) # Rename the column name of the dataframe Orange_df = Orange %>% rename_all(funs(str_replace_all(., "e", "E"))) Orange_df
Rename all the column name with pattern “e” as “E”.
Hope you have enjoyed Dplyr version of renaming. As a Bonus lets look at how to rename the column using Base R package.
Rename Column in R using Base functions:
To rename the column in R we can also use base functions in R instead of dplyr we can accomplish different renaming like renaming all the columns in R and rename the specific column in R. In this tutorial we will be looking on how to
- Rename all the columns in R
- Rename only specific column
Let’s first create the dataframe.
df1=data.frame(State=c('Arizona','Georgia', 'Newyork','Indiana','seattle','washington','Texas'),
code=c('AZ','GA','NY','IN','ST','WT','TX'),
Score=c(62,47,55,74,31,77,85))
df1
So the dataframe will be
Rename all the column in R: using base Functions
# rename all the column in R
colnames(df1) = c("State_Name", "State_code","Hindex_Score")
df1
so the resultant dataframe will be
Rename a specific column in R – Method 1:
Rename the first column as “US_State_Name”
# rename a specific column in R names(df1)[1] = "US_State_Name" df1
so the resultant dataframe will be
Rename a specific column in R – Method 2:
Rename the “State” column as “US_State_Name”
# rename a specific column in R names(df1)[names(df1) == "State"] <- "US_State_Name" df1
so the resultant dataframe will be
For Further understanding on how to rename a specific column in R using Dplyr one can refer dplyr documentation
Other related Topics in dplyr :
