I was thinking,
b <- subset(mtcars, select=c("mpg", "cyl", "drat", "wt"))

Yours is even simpler. :)

Thanks
Mike

On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 4:06 PM, Berend Hasselman <b...@xs4all.nl> wrote:

>
> On 12-04-2013, at 21:56, C W <tmrs...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > What if my data is much larger, and I don't know what column number but
> know its name?  Do I have to grep its by name?
> > How about subset()?  Is that what people commonly use?
> >
>
> Continuing with mtcars and the desired columns
>
> b <- mtcars[,c("mpg","cyl","drat","wt")]
>
> Berend
>
> > Mike
> >
> > On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 3:44 PM, Berend Hasselman <b...@xs4all.nl> wrote:
> >
> > On 12-04-2013, at 21:32, C W <tmrs...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Dear list,
> > >
> > > I want the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th columns of mtcars.  After copying
> them,
> > > the columns become numeric class rather than data frame.
> > >
> > > But, when I copy rows, they data frame retains its class.  Why is
> this?  I
> > > don't see why copying rows vs columns is so different.
> > >
> > >> class(mtcars)
> > > [1] "data.frame"
> > >> head(mtcars)
> > >                   mpg cyl disp  hp drat    wt  qsec vs am gear carb
> > > Mazda RX4         21.0   6  160 110 3.90 2.620 16.46  0  1    4    4
> > > Mazda RX4 Wag     21.0   6  160 110 3.90 2.875 17.02  0  1    4    4
> > > Datsun 710        22.8   4  108  93 3.85 2.320 18.61  1  1    4    1
> > > Hornet 4 Drive    21.4   6  258 110 3.08 3.215 19.44  1  0    3    1
> > > Hornet Sportabout 18.7   8  360 175 3.15 3.440 17.02  0  0    3    2
> > > Valiant           18.1   6  225 105 2.76 3.460 20.22  1  0    3    1
> > >> a <- mtcars$mpg
> > >> class(a)
> > > [1] "numeric"
> >
> > Here you are assigning a single column of mtcars, which is a numeric
> vector, to another object. So that is a numeric vector.
> >
> > >> b <- mtcars[1:5, ]
> > >> class(b)
> > > [1] "data.frame"
> > >
> >
> > Here you are assigning a couple of rows of the complete dataframe and
> the result is a dataframe.
> >
> > If you want the  1st, 2nd, 5th, and 6th columns of mtcars in a new
> datafrmae why don't you do this:
> >
> >  a <- mtcars[,c(1,2,5,6)]
> >
> > then
> >
> > > class(a)
> > [1] "data.frame"
> >
> >
> > Berend
> >
> >
> >
>
>

        [[alternative HTML version deleted]]

______________________________________________
R-help@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.

Reply via email to