Modern object classes and methods for handling data.frame like structures are provided by the dplyr and data.table packages. The following gives a short introduction to the usage and functionalities of the dplyr package. More detailed tutorials on this topic can be found here:

Installation

The dplyr environment has evolved into an ecosystem of packages. To simplify package management, one can install and load the entire collection via the tidyverse package. For more details on tidyverse see here.

install.packages("tidyverse")

Construct a data frame (tibble)

library(tidyverse)
as_data_frame(iris) # coerce data.frame to data frame tbl
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 5
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>  <fctr>
## 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
## 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa
## 8           5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 9           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1  setosa
## # ... with 140 more rows

Alternative functions producing the same result include as_tibble and tbl_df:

as_tibble(iris) # newer function provided by tibble package
tbl_df(iris) # this alternative exists for historical reasons

Reading and writing tabular files

While the base R read/write utilities can be used for data frames, best time performance with the least amount of typing is achieved with the export/import functions from the readr package. For very large files the fread function from the data.table package achieves the best time performance.

Import with readr

Import functions provided by readr include:

  • read_csv(): comma separated (CSV) files
  • read_tsv(): tab separated files
  • read_delim(): general delimited files
  • read_fwf(): fixed width files
  • read_table(): tabular files where colums are separated by white-space.
  • read_log(): web log files

Create a sample tab delimited file for import

write_tsv(iris, "iris.txt") # Creates sample file

Import with read_tsv

iris_df <- read_tsv("iris.txt") # Import with read_tbv from readr package
iris_df
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 5
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
## 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
## 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa
## 8           5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 9           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1  setosa
## # ... with 140 more rows

To import Google Sheets directly into R, see here.

Fast table import with fread

The fread function from the data.table package provides the best time performance for reading large tabular files into R.

library(data.table)
iris_df <- as_data_frame(fread("iris.txt")) # Import with fread and conversion to tibble
iris_df
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 5
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
## 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
## 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa
## 8           5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 9           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1  setosa
## # ... with 140 more rows

Note: to ignore lines starting with comment signs, one can pass on to fread a shell command for preprocessing the file. The following example illustrates this option.

fread("grep -v '^#' iris.txt") 

Export with readr

Export function provided by readr inlcude

  • write_delim(): general delimited files
  • write_csv(): comma separated (CSV) files
  • write_excel_csv(): excel style CSV files
  • write_tsv(): tab separated files

For instance, the write_tsv function writes a data frame to a tab delimited file with much nicer default settings than the base R write.table function.

write_tsv(iris_df, "iris.txt")

Column and row binds

The equivalents to base R’s rbind and cbind are bind_rows and bind_cols, respectively.

bind_cols(iris_df, iris_df)
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 10
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>        <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>
## 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa          5.1         3.5          1.4
## 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa          4.9         3.0          1.4
## 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa          4.7         3.2          1.3
## 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa          4.6         3.1          1.5
## 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa          5.0         3.6          1.4
## 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa          5.4         3.9          1.7
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa          4.6         3.4          1.4
## 8           5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2  setosa          5.0         3.4          1.5
## 9           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa          4.4         2.9          1.4
## 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1  setosa          4.9         3.1          1.5
## # ... with 140 more rows, and 2 more variables: Petal.Width <dbl>, Species <chr>
bind_rows(iris_df, iris_df)
## # A tibble: 300 <U+00D7> 5
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
## 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
## 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa
## 8           5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 9           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1  setosa
## # ... with 290 more rows

Extract column as vector

The subsetting operators [[ and $can be used to extract from a data frame single columns as vector.

iris_df[[5]][1:12]
##  [1] "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa"
## [11] "setosa" "setosa"
iris_df$Species[1:12]
##  [1] "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa" "setosa"
## [11] "setosa" "setosa"

Important dplyr functions

  1. filter() and slice()
  2. arrange()
  3. select() and rename()
  4. distinct()
  5. mutate() and transmute()
  6. summarise()
  7. sample_n() and sample_frac()

Slice and filter functions

Filter function

filter(iris_df, Sepal.Length > 7.5, Species=="virginica")
## # A tibble: 6 <U+00D7> 5
##   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width   Species
##          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>     <chr>
## 1          7.6         3.0          6.6         2.1 virginica
## 2          7.7         3.8          6.7         2.2 virginica
## 3          7.7         2.6          6.9         2.3 virginica
## 4          7.7         2.8          6.7         2.0 virginica
## 5          7.9         3.8          6.4         2.0 virginica
## 6          7.7         3.0          6.1         2.3 virginica

Base R code equivalent

iris_df[iris_df[, "Sepal.Length"] > 7.5 & iris_df[, "Species"]=="virginica", ]
## # A tibble: 6 <U+00D7> 5
##   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width   Species
##          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>     <chr>
## 1          7.6         3.0          6.6         2.1 virginica
## 2          7.7         3.8          6.7         2.2 virginica
## 3          7.7         2.6          6.9         2.3 virginica
## 4          7.7         2.8          6.7         2.0 virginica
## 5          7.9         3.8          6.4         2.0 virginica
## 6          7.7         3.0          6.1         2.3 virginica

Including boolean operators

filter(iris_df, Sepal.Length > 7.5 | Sepal.Length < 5.5, Species=="virginica")
## # A tibble: 7 <U+00D7> 5
##   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width   Species
##          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>     <chr>
## 1          7.6         3.0          6.6         2.1 virginica
## 2          4.9         2.5          4.5         1.7 virginica
## 3          7.7         3.8          6.7         2.2 virginica
## 4          7.7         2.6          6.9         2.3 virginica
## 5          7.7         2.8          6.7         2.0 virginica
## 6          7.9         3.8          6.4         2.0 virginica
## 7          7.7         3.0          6.1         2.3 virginica

Subset rows by position

dplyr approach

slice(iris_df, 1:2)
## # A tibble: 2 <U+00D7> 5
##   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
##          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
## 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 2          4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa

Base R code equivalent

iris_df[1:2,]
## # A tibble: 2 <U+00D7> 5
##   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
##          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
## 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 2          4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa

Subset rows by names

Since data frames do not contain row names, row wise subsetting via the [,] operator cannot be used. However, the corresponding behavior can be achieved by passing to select a row position index obtained by basic R intersect utilities such as match.

Create a suitable test data frame

df1 <- bind_cols(data_frame(ids1=paste0("g", 1:10)), as_data_frame(matrix(1:40, 10, 4, dimnames=list(1:10, paste0("CA", 1:4)))))
df1
## # A tibble: 10 <U+00D7> 5
##     ids1   CA1   CA2   CA3   CA4
##    <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int>
## 1     g1     1    11    21    31
## 2     g2     2    12    22    32
## 3     g3     3    13    23    33
## 4     g4     4    14    24    34
## 5     g5     5    15    25    35
## 6     g6     6    16    26    36
## 7     g7     7    17    27    37
## 8     g8     8    18    28    38
## 9     g9     9    19    29    39
## 10   g10    10    20    30    40

dplyr approach

slice(df1, match(c("g10", "g4", "g4"), df1$ids1))
## # A tibble: 3 <U+00D7> 5
##    ids1   CA1   CA2   CA3   CA4
##   <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int>
## 1   g10    10    20    30    40
## 2    g4     4    14    24    34
## 3    g4     4    14    24    34

Base R equivalent

df1_old <- as.data.frame(df1)
rownames(df1_old) <- df1_old[,1]
df1_old[c("g10", "g4", "g4"),]
##      ids1 CA1 CA2 CA3 CA4
## g10   g10  10  20  30  40
## g4     g4   4  14  24  34
## g4.1   g4   4  14  24  34

Sorting with arrange

Row-wise ordering based on specific columns

dplyr approach

arrange(iris_df, Species, Sepal.Length, Sepal.Width)
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 5
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
## 1           4.3         3.0          1.1         0.1  setosa
## 2           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 3           4.4         3.0          1.3         0.2  setosa
## 4           4.4         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
## 5           4.5         2.3          1.3         0.3  setosa
## 6           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 7           4.6         3.2          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 8           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa
## 9           4.6         3.6          1.0         0.2  setosa
## 10          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
## # ... with 140 more rows

For ordering descendingly use desc() function

arrange(iris_df, desc(Species), Sepal.Length, Sepal.Width)
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 5
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width   Species
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>     <chr>
## 1           4.9         2.5          4.5         1.7 virginica
## 2           5.6         2.8          4.9         2.0 virginica
## 3           5.7         2.5          5.0         2.0 virginica
## 4           5.8         2.7          5.1         1.9 virginica
## 5           5.8         2.7          5.1         1.9 virginica
## 6           5.8         2.8          5.1         2.4 virginica
## 7           5.9         3.0          5.1         1.8 virginica
## 8           6.0         2.2          5.0         1.5 virginica
## 9           6.0         3.0          4.8         1.8 virginica
## 10          6.1         2.6          5.6         1.4 virginica
## # ... with 140 more rows

Base R code equivalent

iris_df[order(iris_df$Species, iris_df$Sepal.Length, iris_df$Sepal.Width), ]
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 5
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>
## 1           4.3         3.0          1.1         0.1  setosa
## 2           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 3           4.4         3.0          1.3         0.2  setosa
## 4           4.4         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
## 5           4.5         2.3          1.3         0.3  setosa
## 6           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa
## 7           4.6         3.2          1.4         0.2  setosa
## 8           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa
## 9           4.6         3.6          1.0         0.2  setosa
## 10          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
## # ... with 140 more rows
iris_df[order(iris_df$Species, decreasing=TRUE), ] 
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 5
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width   Species
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>     <chr>
## 1           6.3         3.3          6.0         2.5 virginica
## 2           5.8         2.7          5.1         1.9 virginica
## 3           7.1         3.0          5.9         2.1 virginica
## 4           6.3         2.9          5.6         1.8 virginica
## 5           6.5         3.0          5.8         2.2 virginica
## 6           7.6         3.0          6.6         2.1 virginica
## 7           4.9         2.5          4.5         1.7 virginica
## 8           7.3         2.9          6.3         1.8 virginica
## 9           6.7         2.5          5.8         1.8 virginica
## 10          7.2         3.6          6.1         2.5 virginica
## # ... with 140 more rows

Select columns with select

Select specific columns

select(iris_df, Species, Petal.Length, Sepal.Length)
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 3
##    Species Petal.Length Sepal.Length
##      <chr>        <dbl>        <dbl>
## 1   setosa          1.4          5.1
## 2   setosa          1.4          4.9
## 3   setosa          1.3          4.7
## 4   setosa          1.5          4.6
## 5   setosa          1.4          5.0
## 6   setosa          1.7          5.4
## 7   setosa          1.4          4.6
## 8   setosa          1.5          5.0
## 9   setosa          1.4          4.4
## 10  setosa          1.5          4.9
## # ... with 140 more rows

Select range of columns by name

select(iris_df, Sepal.Length : Petal.Width)
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 4
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>
## 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2
## 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2
## 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2
## 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2
## 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2
## 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3
## 8           5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2
## 9           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2
## 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1
## # ... with 140 more rows

Drop specific columns (here range)

select(iris_df, -(Sepal.Length : Petal.Width))
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 1
##    Species
##      <chr>
## 1   setosa
## 2   setosa
## 3   setosa
## 4   setosa
## 5   setosa
## 6   setosa
## 7   setosa
## 8   setosa
## 9   setosa
## 10  setosa
## # ... with 140 more rows

Renaming columns with rename

dplyr approach

rename(iris_df, new_col_name = Species)
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 5
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width new_col_name
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>        <chr>
## 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2       setosa
## 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2       setosa
## 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2       setosa
## 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2       setosa
## 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2       setosa
## 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4       setosa
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3       setosa
## 8           5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2       setosa
## 9           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2       setosa
## 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1       setosa
## # ... with 140 more rows

Base R code approach

colnames(iris_df)[colnames(iris_df)=="Species"] <- "new_col_names"

Obtain unique rows with distinct

dplyr approach

distinct(iris_df, Species, .keep_all=TRUE)
## # A tibble: 3 <U+00D7> 5
##   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width    Species
##          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>      <chr>
## 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2     setosa
## 2          7.0         3.2          4.7         1.4 versicolor
## 3          6.3         3.3          6.0         2.5  virginica

Base R code approach

iris_df[!duplicated(iris_df$Species),]
## # A tibble: 3 <U+00D7> 5
##   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width    Species
##          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>      <chr>
## 1          5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2     setosa
## 2          7.0         3.2          4.7         1.4 versicolor
## 3          6.3         3.3          6.0         2.5  virginica

Add columns

mutate

The mutate function allows to append columns to existing ones.

mutate(iris_df, Ratio = Sepal.Length / Sepal.Width, Sum = Sepal.Length + Sepal.Width)
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 7
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species    Ratio   Sum
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>    <dbl> <dbl>
## 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa 1.457143   8.6
## 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa 1.633333   7.9
## 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa 1.468750   7.9
## 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa 1.483871   7.7
## 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa 1.388889   8.6
## 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa 1.384615   9.3
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa 1.352941   8.0
## 8           5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2  setosa 1.470588   8.4
## 9           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa 1.517241   7.3
## 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1  setosa 1.580645   8.0
## # ... with 140 more rows

transmute

The transmute function does the same as mutate but drops existing columns

transmute(iris_df, Ratio = Sepal.Length / Sepal.Width, Sum = Sepal.Length + Sepal.Width)
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 2
##       Ratio   Sum
##       <dbl> <dbl>
## 1  1.457143   8.6
## 2  1.633333   7.9
## 3  1.468750   7.9
## 4  1.483871   7.7
## 5  1.388889   8.6
## 6  1.384615   9.3
## 7  1.352941   8.0
## 8  1.470588   8.4
## 9  1.517241   7.3
## 10 1.580645   8.0
## # ... with 140 more rows

bind_cols

The bind_cols function is the equivalent of cbind in base R. To add rows, use the corresponding bind_rows function.

bind_cols(iris_df, iris_df)
## # A tibble: 150 <U+00D7> 10
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>        <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>
## 1           5.1         3.5          1.4         0.2  setosa          5.1         3.5          1.4
## 2           4.9         3.0          1.4         0.2  setosa          4.9         3.0          1.4
## 3           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa          4.7         3.2          1.3
## 4           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa          4.6         3.1          1.5
## 5           5.0         3.6          1.4         0.2  setosa          5.0         3.6          1.4
## 6           5.4         3.9          1.7         0.4  setosa          5.4         3.9          1.7
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa          4.6         3.4          1.4
## 8           5.0         3.4          1.5         0.2  setosa          5.0         3.4          1.5
## 9           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa          4.4         2.9          1.4
## 10          4.9         3.1          1.5         0.1  setosa          4.9         3.1          1.5
## # ... with 140 more rows, and 2 more variables: Petal.Width <dbl>, Species <chr>

Summarize data

Summary calculation on single column

summarize(iris_df, mean(Petal.Length))
## # A tibble: 1 <U+00D7> 1
##   `mean(Petal.Length)`
##                  <dbl>
## 1                3.758

Summary calculation on many columns

summarize_all(iris_df[,1:4], mean)
## # A tibble: 1 <U+00D7> 4
##   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width
##          <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>
## 1     5.843333    3.057333        3.758    1.199333

Summarize by grouping column

summarize(group_by(iris_df, Species), mean(Petal.Length))
## # A tibble: 3 <U+00D7> 2
##      Species `mean(Petal.Length)`
##        <chr>                <dbl>
## 1     setosa                1.462
## 2 versicolor                4.260
## 3  virginica                5.552

Aggregate summaries

summarize_all(group_by(iris_df, Species), mean) 
## # A tibble: 3 <U+00D7> 5
##      Species Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width
##        <chr>        <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>
## 1     setosa        5.006       3.428        1.462       0.246
## 2 versicolor        5.936       2.770        4.260       1.326
## 3  virginica        6.588       2.974        5.552       2.026

Note: group_by does the looping for the user similar to aggregate or tapply.

Merging data frames

The dplyr package provides several join functions for merging data frames by a common key column similar to the merge function in base R. These *_join functions include:

  • inner_join(): returns join only for rows matching among both data tables
  • full_join(): returns join for all (matching and non-matching) rows of two data tables
  • left_join(): returns join for all rows in first data table
  • right_join(): returns join for all rows in second data table
  • anti_join(): returns for first data table only those rows that have no match in the second one

Sample data frames to illustrate *.join functions.

df1 <- bind_cols(data_frame(ids1=paste0("g", 1:10)), as_data_frame(matrix(1:40, 10, 4, dimnames=list(1:10, paste0("CA", 1:4)))))
df1
## # A tibble: 10 <U+00D7> 5
##     ids1   CA1   CA2   CA3   CA4
##    <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int>
## 1     g1     1    11    21    31
## 2     g2     2    12    22    32
## 3     g3     3    13    23    33
## 4     g4     4    14    24    34
## 5     g5     5    15    25    35
## 6     g6     6    16    26    36
## 7     g7     7    17    27    37
## 8     g8     8    18    28    38
## 9     g9     9    19    29    39
## 10   g10    10    20    30    40
df2 <- bind_cols(data_frame(ids2=paste0("g", c(2,5,11,12))), as_data_frame(matrix(1:16, 4, 4, dimnames=list(1:4, paste0("CB", 1:4)))))
df2
## # A tibble: 4 <U+00D7> 5
##    ids2   CB1   CB2   CB3   CB4
##   <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int>
## 1    g2     1     5     9    13
## 2    g5     2     6    10    14
## 3   g11     3     7    11    15
## 4   g12     4     8    12    16

Inner join

inner_join(df1, df2, by=c("ids1"="ids2"))
## # A tibble: 2 <U+00D7> 9
##    ids1   CA1   CA2   CA3   CA4   CB1   CB2   CB3   CB4
##   <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int>
## 1    g2     2    12    22    32     1     5     9    13
## 2    g5     5    15    25    35     2     6    10    14

Left join

left_join(df1, df2, by=c("ids1"="ids2"))
## # A tibble: 10 <U+00D7> 9
##     ids1   CA1   CA2   CA3   CA4   CB1   CB2   CB3   CB4
##    <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int>
## 1     g1     1    11    21    31    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 2     g2     2    12    22    32     1     5     9    13
## 3     g3     3    13    23    33    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 4     g4     4    14    24    34    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 5     g5     5    15    25    35     2     6    10    14
## 6     g6     6    16    26    36    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 7     g7     7    17    27    37    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 8     g8     8    18    28    38    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 9     g9     9    19    29    39    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 10   g10    10    20    30    40    NA    NA    NA    NA

Right join

right_join(df1, df2, by=c("ids1"="ids2"))
## # A tibble: 4 <U+00D7> 9
##    ids1   CA1   CA2   CA3   CA4   CB1   CB2   CB3   CB4
##   <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int>
## 1    g2     2    12    22    32     1     5     9    13
## 2    g5     5    15    25    35     2     6    10    14
## 3   g11    NA    NA    NA    NA     3     7    11    15
## 4   g12    NA    NA    NA    NA     4     8    12    16

Full join

full_join(df1, df2, by=c("ids1"="ids2"))
## # A tibble: 12 <U+00D7> 9
##     ids1   CA1   CA2   CA3   CA4   CB1   CB2   CB3   CB4
##    <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int> <int>
## 1     g1     1    11    21    31    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 2     g2     2    12    22    32     1     5     9    13
## 3     g3     3    13    23    33    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 4     g4     4    14    24    34    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 5     g5     5    15    25    35     2     6    10    14
## 6     g6     6    16    26    36    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 7     g7     7    17    27    37    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 8     g8     8    18    28    38    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 9     g9     9    19    29    39    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 10   g10    10    20    30    40    NA    NA    NA    NA
## 11   g11    NA    NA    NA    NA     3     7    11    15
## 12   g12    NA    NA    NA    NA     4     8    12    16

Anti join

anti_join(df1, df2, by=c("ids1"="ids2"))
## # A tibble: 8 <U+00D7> 5
##    ids1   CA1   CA2   CA3   CA4
##   <chr> <int> <int> <int> <int>
## 1   g10    10    20    30    40
## 2    g9     9    19    29    39
## 3    g8     8    18    28    38
## 4    g7     7    17    27    37
## 5    g6     6    16    26    36
## 6    g4     4    14    24    34
## 7    g3     3    13    23    33
## 8    g1     1    11    21    31

For additional join options users want to cosult the *_join help pages.

Chaining

To simplify chaining of serveral operations, dplyr provides the %>% operator. where x %>% f(y) turns into f(x, y). This way one can pipe together multiple operations by writing them from left-to-right or top-to-bottom. This makes for easy to type and readable code.

Example 1

Series of data manipulations and export

iris_df %>% # Declare data frame to use 
    select(Sepal.Length:Species) %>% # Select columns
    filter(Species=="setosa") %>% # Filter rows by some value
    arrange(Sepal.Length) %>% # Sort by some column
    mutate(Subtract=Petal.Length - Petal.Width) # Calculate and append
## # A tibble: 50 <U+00D7> 6
##    Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species Subtract
##           <dbl>       <dbl>        <dbl>       <dbl>   <chr>    <dbl>
## 1           4.3         3.0          1.1         0.1  setosa      1.0
## 2           4.4         2.9          1.4         0.2  setosa      1.2
## 3           4.4         3.0          1.3         0.2  setosa      1.1
## 4           4.4         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa      1.1
## 5           4.5         2.3          1.3         0.3  setosa      1.0
## 6           4.6         3.1          1.5         0.2  setosa      1.3
## 7           4.6         3.4          1.4         0.3  setosa      1.1
## 8           4.6         3.6          1.0         0.2  setosa      0.8
## 9           4.6         3.2          1.4         0.2  setosa      1.2
## 10          4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa      1.1
## # ... with 40 more rows
    # write_tsv("iris.txt") # Export to file, omitted here to show result 

Example 2

Series of summary calculations for grouped data (group_by)

iris_df %>% # Declare data frame to use 
    group_by(Species) %>% # Group by species
    summarize(Mean_Sepal.Length=mean(Sepal.Length), 
              Max_Sepal.Length=max(Sepal.Length),
              Min_Sepal.Length=min(Sepal.Length),
              SD_Sepal.Length=sd(Sepal.Length),
              Total=n()) 
## # A tibble: 3 <U+00D7> 6
##      Species Mean_Sepal.Length Max_Sepal.Length Min_Sepal.Length SD_Sepal.Length Total
##        <chr>             <dbl>            <dbl>            <dbl>           <dbl> <int>
## 1     setosa             5.006              5.8              4.3       0.3524897    50
## 2 versicolor             5.936              7.0              4.9       0.5161711    50
## 3  virginica             6.588              7.9              4.9       0.6358796    50

Example 3

Combining dplyr chaining with ggplot

iris_df %>% 
    group_by(Species) %>% 
    summarize_all(mean) %>% 
    reshape2::melt(id.vars=c("Species"), variable.name = "Samples", value.name="Values") %>%
    ggplot(aes(Samples, Values, fill = Species)) + 
        geom_bar(position="dodge", stat="identity")



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