Occasionally you may want to switch the position of two columns in an R data frame. Fortunately this is easy to do using one of the two following bits of code:
Option 1: Use column syntax.
#define order of data frame columns
df
Option 2: Use row and column syntax.
#define order of data frame columns
df
The following examples illustrate how to use these two bits of code in practice.
Example 1: Switch Two Columns Using Column Syntax
The following code shows how to create a data frame with four columns and then switch the position of the first and third column:
#create data frame df #view data frame df col1 col2 col3 col4 1 1 4 7 9 2 2 4 7 9 3 6 5 8 9 4 3 4 7 5 5 6 3 3 5 6 6 2 3 3 #switch positions of first and third column df #view new data frame df col3 col2 col1 col4 1 7 4 1 9 2 7 4 2 9 3 8 5 6 9 4 7 4 3 5 5 3 3 6 5 6 3 2 6 3
Example 2: Switch Two Columns Using Row & Column Syntax
The following code shows how to create a data frame with four columns and then switch the position of the first and third column:
#create data frame df #view data frame df col1 col2 col3 col4 1 1 4 7 9 2 2 4 7 9 3 6 5 8 9 4 3 4 7 5 5 6 3 3 5 6 6 2 3 3 #switch positions of first and third column df #view new data frame df col3 col2 col1 col4 1 7 4 1 9 2 7 4 2 9 3 8 5 6 9 4 7 4 3 5 5 3 3 6 5 6 3 2 6 3
Notice that both methods lead to the same results.
Additional Resources
How to Sum Specific Columns in R
How to Average Across Columns in R