I wonder if there is a more efficient way to do this task. Suppose I have two data frames, such as
d1 <- data.frame(x = c(1,2,3), y = c(4,5,6), z = c(7,8,9)) d2 <- d1[, c('y', 'x')] The first dataframe d1 has more variables than d2 and the variable columns are in a different order. So, what I want to do is compare the two frames on the variables that are common between the two. First I find the common variables between the two dataframes common_order <- intersect(colnames(d1), colnames(d2)) Then, I have to put the variables in d2 in the same order as d1 as d2 <- d2[, common_order] Then, I keep only the variables in common between d1 and d2 as d1 <- d1[, common_order] Then, finally I can do the compare on the common variables now in the same order. all.equal(d1, d2) None of this is horribly difficult, but it requires a couple of steps that I am wondering might be eliminated. Harold > sessionInfo() R version 2.10.1 (2009-12-14) i386-pc-mingw32 locale: [1] LC_COLLATE=English_United States.1252 LC_CTYPE=English_United States.1252 LC_MONETARY=English_United States.1252 [4] LC_NUMERIC=C LC_TIME=English_United States.1252 attached base packages: [1] stats graphics grDevices utils datasets methods base other attached packages: [1] MiscPsycho_1.6 statmod_1.4.6 loaded via a namespace (and not attached): [1] tools_2.10.1 ______________________________________________ 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.