Extract.data.frame

R Base 3.6.2

Extract or replace subsets of data frames.

Syntax

# S3 method for data.frame
[(x, i, j, drop = )
# S3 method for data.frame
[(x, i, j) &lt;- value
# S3 method for data.frame
[[(x, ..., exact = TRUE)
# S3 method for data.frame
[[(x, i, j) &lt;- value
<!-- % \method{$}{data.frame}(x, name) -->
# S3 method for data.frame
$(x, name) &lt;- value

Arguments

Parameter	Description
`x`	data frame.
`i, j, ...`	elements to extract or replace. For [ and [[, these are numeric or character or, for [ only, empty. Numeric values are coerced to integer as if by as.integer. For replacement by [, a logical matrix is allowed.
`name`	A literal character string or a name (possibly backtick quoted).
`drop`	logical. If TRUE the result is coerced to the lowest possible dimension. The default is to drop if only one column is left, but not to drop if only one row is left.
`value`	A suitable replacement value: it will be repeated a whole number of times if necessary and it may be coerced: see the Coercion section. If NULL, deletes the column if a single column is selected.
`exact`	logical: see [, and applies to column names.

Return Value

For [ a data frame, list or a single column (the latter two only when dimensions have been dropped). If matrix indexing is used for extraction a vector results. If the result would be a data frame an error results if undefined columns are selected (as there is no general concept of a 'missing' column in a data frame). Otherwise if a single column is selected and this is undefined the result is NULL. For [[ a column of the data frame or NULL (extraction with one index) or a length-one vector (ext

Details

Data frames can be indexed in several modes. When [ and [[ are used with a single vector index (x[i] or x[[i]]), they index the data frame as if it were a list. In this usage a drop argument is ignored, with a warning. There is no data.frame method for $, so x$name uses the default method which treats x as a list (with partial matching of column names if the match is unique, see Extract). The replacement method (for $) checks value for the correct number of rows, and replicates it if necessary. When [ and [[ are used with two indices (x[i, j] and x[[i, j]]) they act like indexing a matrix: [[ can only be used to select one element. Note that for each selected column, xj say, typically (if it is not matrix-like), the resulting column will be xj[i], and hence rely on the corresponding [ meth

Examples

Example

# NOT RUN {
sw <- swiss[1:5, 1:4]  # select a manageable subset

sw[1:3]      # select columns
sw[, 1:3]    # same
sw[4:5, 1:3] # select rows and columns
sw[1]        # a one-column data frame
sw[, 1, drop = FALSE]  # the same
sw[, 1]      # a (unnamed) vector
sw[[1]]      # the same
sw$Fert      # the same (possibly w/ warning, see ?Extract)

sw[1,]       # a one-row data frame
sw[1,, drop = TRUE]  # a list

sw["C", ] # partially matches
sw[match("C", row.names(sw)), ] # no exact match
try(sw[, "Ferti"]) # column names must match exactly

# }
# NOT RUN {
swiss[ c(1, 1:2), ]   # duplicate row, unique row names are created

sw[sw <= 6] <- 6  # logical matrix indexing
sw

## adding a column
sw["new1"] <- LETTERS[1:5]   # adds a character column
sw[["new2"]] <- letters[1:5] # ditto
sw[, "new3"] <- LETTERS[1:5] # ditto
sw$new4 <- 1:5
sapply(sw, class)
sw$new  # -> NULL: no unique partial match
sw$new4 <- NULL              # delete the column
sw
sw[6:8] <- list(letters[10:14], NULL, aa = 1:5)
# update col. 6, delete 7, append
sw

## matrices in a data frame
A <- data.frame(x = 1:3, y = I(matrix(4:9, 3, 2)),
                         z = I(matrix(letters[1:9], 3, 3)))
A[1:3, "y"] # a matrix
A[1:3, "z"] # a matrix
A[, "y"]    # a matrix
stopifnot(identical(colnames(A), c("x", "y", "z")), ncol(A) == 3L,
          identical(A[,"y"], A[1:3, "y"]),
          inherits (A[,"y"], "AsIs"))

## keeping special attributes: use a class with a
## "as.data.frame" and "[" method;
## "avector" := vector that keeps attributes.   Could provide a constructor
##  avector <- function(x) { class(x) <- c("avector", class(x)); x }
as.data.frame.avector <- as.data.frame.vector

`[.avector` <- function(x,i,...) {
  r <- NextMethod("[")
  mostattributes(r) <- attributes(x)
  r
}

d <- data.frame(i = 0:7, f = gl(2,4),
                u = structure(11:18, unit = "kg", class = "avector"))
str(d[2:4, -1]) # 'u' keeps its "unit"
# }