Get All Possible Subsets of Vector in R (2 Examples)

In this tutorial you’ll learn how to find all possible subsets of vector elements in the R programming language.

Table of contents:

Let’s jump right to the examples!

Example Data

The following data is used as basement for this R programming tutorial:

my_vec <- paste0("C", 1:3)                      # Create example vector
my_vec                                          # Print example vector
# [1] "C1" "C2" "C3"

Have a look at the previous RStudio console output. It shows that our example data is a vector containing the three vector elements “C1”, “C2”, and “C3”.

Example 1: Return All Possible Combinations of Vector Using combinat Package

Example 1 demonstrates how to use the combinat package to get all possible subsets of a vector.

To be able to use the functions of the combinat package, we first have to install and load combinat:

install.packages("combinat")                    # Install combinat package
library("combinat")                             # Load combinat

Next, we can use the unlist, lapply, length, and combn functions to create a list containing all subset combinations of our vector:

my_combi1 <- unlist(lapply(1:length(my_vec),    # Get all combinations
                           combinat::combn, 
                           x = my_vec,
                           simplify = FALSE), 
                    recursive = FALSE)
my_combi1                                       # Print all combinations
# [[1]]
# [1] "C1"
# 
# [[2]]
# [1] "C2"
# 
# [[3]]
# [1] "C3"
# 
# [[4]]
# [1] "C1" "C2"
# 
# [[5]]
# [1] "C1" "C3"
# 
# [[6]]
# [1] "C2" "C3"
# 
# [[7]]
# [1] "C1" "C2" "C3"

The previous output of the RStudio console shows our result: We have created a list where each list element represents a different subset of our input vector.

Example 2: Return All Possible Combinations of Vector Using sets Package

Alternatively to the combinat package, we can also use the sets package to get all possible subsets of a vector.

First, we need to install and load the sets package:

install.packages("sets")                        # Install sets package
library("sets")                                 # Load sets package

In the next step, we can apply the set_power function to return all subsets of our vector:

my_combi2 <- set_power(my_vec)                  # Get all combinations
my_combi2                                       # Print all combinations
# {{}, {"C1"}, {"C2"}, {"C3"}, {"C1", "C2"}, {"C1", "C3"}, {"C2", "C3"}, {"C1", "C2", "C3"}}

Note that the previous R code has created a set object. You can learn more about the handling of sets here.

Video, Further Resources & Summary

If you need further info on the topics of this page, I recommend watching the following video on my YouTube channel. I explain the R programming codes of this page in the video:

In addition, you may want to read some of the other tutorials on my website:

• Calculate Combinations & Permutations in R
• Get Frequency of Elements with Certain Value in Vector (2 R Examples)
• Get Last Value of Vector
• Test for Equality of All Vector Elements
• Get All Factor Levels of Vector & Data Frame Column
• All R Programming Examples

In this article you have learned how to identify all possible subsets of elements in a vector in R programming. Don’t hesitate to tell me about it in the comments section, if you have additional questions.