Select Data Frame Rows where Column Values are in Range in R (2 Examples)

In this article you’ll learn how to extract certain data frame rows within a range of values in the R programming language.

Table of contents:

So now the part you have been waiting for – the examples…

Creation of Example Data

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

data <- data.frame(x1 = c(5, 9, 1, 4, 3, 9),    # Creating example data
                   x2 = letters[7:2],
                   x3 = 33)
data                                            # Printing example data
#   x1 x2 x3
# 1  5  g 33
# 2  9  f 33
# 3  1  e 33
# 4  4  d 33
# 5  3  c 33
# 6  9  b 33

Have a look at the previous output of the RStudio console. It shows that our example data has six rows and three columns.

Example 1: Return Rows with Column Values in Certain Range Using Square Brackets

Example 1 explains how to subset rows from our data frame where the values of the variable x1 are ranging between 3 and 5. For this, we first have to identify the rows that are in this range:

identify_rows <- data$x1 >= 3 & data$x1 <= 5    # Identify rows in range
identify_rows                                   # Printing logical indicator
# TRUE FALSE FALSE  TRUE  TRUE FALSE

The previous R code created a logical vector where TRUE indicates that the values of the column x1 are between 3 and 5 and FALSE indicates that x1 is outside of the range.

Now, we can use this vector to subset our data conditionally:

data_range1 <- data[identify_rows, ]            # Subsetting data frame
data_range1                                     # Printing new data frame
#   x1 x2 x3
# 1  5  g 33
# 4  4  d 33
# 5  3  c 33

Our data frame subset consists of three rows. All values of the variable x1 are within our previously defined range.

Example 2: Return Rows with Column Values in Certain Range Using subset() Function

Alternatively to the R syntax shown in Example 1, we can also use the subset function to extract data frame rows in a certain range. Have a look at the following R code:

data_range2 <- subset(data, identify_rows)      # Applying subset function
data_range2                                     # Printing new data frame
#   x1 x2 x3
# 1  5  g 33
# 4  4  d 33
# 5  3  c 33

The resulting data table is exactly the same as in Example 1.

Video, Further Resources & Summary

I have recently published a video on my YouTube channel, which explains the content of this article. You can find the video below:

In addition to the video, you might have a look at some of the related tutorials which I have published on my website. You can find a selection of articles about topics such as data inspection, vectors, and character strings here:

• Find Rows in First Data Frame that are not in Second
• Select Data Frame Column Using Character Vector
• Select Data Frame Rows based on Values in Vector
• Introduction to R Programming

In summary: In this tutorial, I explained how to return only rows in a specific value range in the R programming language. Don’t hesitate to let me know in the comments section, if you have any additional questions.