How to create a data frame from scratch (in R)

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Task

Sometimes it is useful to create a small table of data directly in code, without first needing to store the data in a file and load it from there. This can be useful for creating small tables for testing purposes, or for creating small lookup tables that hold abbreviations, IDs, etc. What’s the easiest way to build such a table?

Solution

In R, the data.frame function can be used to build data frames. Each column in your data should be a separate parameter, with its name provided, followed by an equals sign, followed by the vector of column contents, as shown in the example below.

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data <- data.frame(
    last.name =  c( 'Potter', 'Weasley', 'Granger', 'Malfoy' ),
    first.name = c( 'Harry', 'Ron', 'Hermione', 'Draco' ),
    house =      c( 'Griffindor', 'Griffindor', 'Griffindor', 'Slytherin' )
)
data

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  last.name first.name house     
1 Potter    Harry      Griffindor
2 Weasley   Ron        Griffindor
3 Granger   Hermione   Griffindor
4 Malfoy    Draco      Slytherin 

Content last modified on 24 July 2023.

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Contributed by Nathan Carter (ncarter@bentley.edu)