Change Column Names in List of Data Frames in R (Example)
In this article you’ll learn how to rename the variable names of data frames in a list in the R programming language.
The tutorial consists of the following contents:
Let’s jump right to the exemplifying R syntax.
Constructing Example Data
We’ll use the following two data frames as a basis for this R programming tutorial:
data1 <- data.frame(x1 = 1:5, # Create first example data frame x2 = 2:6, x3 = 3:7) data1 # Print first example data frame
data2 <- data.frame(x1 = letters[1:5], # Create first example data frame x2 = letters[2:6], x3 = letters[3:7]) data2 # Print first example data frame
Tables 1 and 2 show the output of the previous R syntax: We have constructed two different data frames.
Let’s save these data frames in a list object:
my_list <- list(data1, data2) # Join data frames in list my_list # Print list of data frames # [[1]] # x1 x2 x3 # 1 1 2 3 # 2 2 3 4 # 3 3 4 5 # 4 4 5 6 # 5 5 6 7 # # [[2]] # x1 x2 x3 # 1 a b c # 2 b c d # 3 c d e # 4 d e f # 5 e f g
The previous R code has created a list object containing our two example data frames.
Example: Rename Column Names of Data Frames in List Using lapply() & setNames() Functions
The following R programming code demonstrates how to modify the column names of the data frames in a list object.
For this task, we first have to create a vector of new column names. Note that this vector needs to have the same length as the number of columns in our data frames:
new_colnames <- paste0("new", 1:3) # Specify new column names new_colnames # Print new column names # [1] "new1" "new2" "new3"
Next, we can use the lapply and setNames functions to change the variable names of all columns in our data frames:
my_list_new <- lapply(my_list, # Rename column names in list setNames, new_colnames) my_list_new # Print new list # [[1]] # new1 new2 new3 # 1 1 2 3 # 2 2 3 4 # 3 3 4 5 # 4 4 5 6 # 5 5 6 7 # # [[2]] # new1 new2 new3 # 1 a b c # 2 b c d # 3 c d e # 4 d e f # 5 e f g
As you can see, the column names of both our data frames have been set to new1, new2, and new3.
Video, Further Resources & Summary
I have recently released a video on my YouTube channel, which shows the examples of this tutorial. You can find the video tutorial below.
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Furthermore, you might want to read the other posts on statisticsglobe.com. Some articles about topics such as lists, merging, and variables are listed below.
- Sort Variables of Data Frame by Column Names
- Create List of Data Frames in R
- Merge Multiple Data Frames in List
- Create Data Frame where a Column is a List
- sort, order & rank R Functions
- R Programming Examples
Summary: You have learned in this article how to change the column names of data frames in a list in the R programming language. Kindly let me know in the comments section below, in case you have any further comments or questions.
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