R - Subset based on column name

3
votes

My data frame has over 120 columns (variables) and I would like to create subsets bases on column names.

For example I would like to create a subset where the column name includes the string "mood". Is this possible?

1
rsubset
Probably something like df[grepl("mood", names(df))] if your data called df – David Arenburg
df[grepl("mood", names(df), fixed = TRUE)] does not use regular expressions, i.e. in "mood." the dot is not for an arbitrary char - probably that what the op wants? Additionally it is faster (which will not really matter here) – Patrick Roocks

1 Answers

2
votes

I generally use

    SubData <- myData[,grep("whatIWant", colnames(myData))]

I know very well that the "," is not necessary and colnames could be replaced by names but it would not work with matrices and I hate to change the formalism when changing objects.