Add (insert) a column between two columns in a data.frame

Question

I have a data frame that has columns a, b, and c. I'd like to add a new column d between b and c.

I know I could just add d at the end by using cbind but how can I insert it in between two columns?

Answer 1

I would suggest you to use the function add_column() from the tibble package.

library(tibble)
dataset <- data.frame(a = 1:5, b = 2:6, c=3:7)
add_column(dataset, d = 4:8, .after = 2)

Note that you can use column names instead of column index :

add_column(dataset, d = 4:8, .after = "b")

Or use argument .before instead of .after if more convenient.

add_column(dataset, d = 4:8, .before = "c")

Answer 2

Add in your new column:

df$d <- list/data

Then you can reorder them.

df <- df[, c("a", "b", "d", "c")]

Answer 3

You can reorder the columns with [, or present the columns in the order that you want.

d <- data.frame(a=1:4, b=5:8, c=9:12)
target <- which(names(d) == 'b')[1]
cbind(d[,1:target,drop=F], data.frame(d=12:15), d[,(target+1):length(d),drop=F])

  a b  d  c
1 1 5 12  9
2 2 6 13 10
3 3 7 14 11
4 4 8 15 12

Answer 4

Presuming that c always immediately follows b, this code will add a column after b no matter where b is in your data.frame.

> test <- data.frame(a=1,b=1,c=1)
> test
  a b c
1 1 1 1

> bspot <- which(names(test)=="b")

> data.frame(test[1:bspot],d=2,test[(bspot+1):ncol(test)])
  a b d c
1 1 1 2 1

Or possibly more naturally:

data.frame(append(test, list(d=2), after=match("b", names(test))))

Answer 5

Create an example data.frame and add a column to it.

df = data.frame(a = seq(1, 3), b = seq(4,6), c = seq(7,9))
df['d'] <- seq(10,12)
df

  a b c  d
1 1 4 7 10
2 2 5 8 11
3 3 6 9 12

Rearrange by column index

df[, colnames(df)[c(1:2,4,3)]]

or by column name

df[, c('a', 'b', 'd', 'c')]

The result is

  a b  d c
1 1 4 10 7
2 2 5 11 8
3 3 6 12 9

Answer 6

Here's a quick and dirty way of inserting a column in a specific position on a data frame. In my case, I have 5 columns in the original data frame: c1, c2, c3, c4, c5 and I will insert a new column c2b between c2 and c3.

1) Let's first create the test data frame:

> dataset <- data.frame(c1 = 1:5, c2 = 2:6, c3=3:7, c4=4:8, c5=5:9)
> dataset
  c1 c2 c3 c4 c5
1  1  2  3  4  5
2  2  3  4  5  6
3  3  4  5  6  7
4  4  5  6  7  8
5  5  6  7  8  9

2) Add the new column c2b at the end of our data frame:

> dataset$c2b <- 10:14
> dataset
  c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 c2b
1  1  2  3  4  5  10
2  2  3  4  5  6  11
3  3  4  5  6  7  12
4  4  5  6  7  8  13
5  5  6  7  8  9  14

3) Reorder the data frame based on column indexes. In my case, I want to insert the new column (6) between existing columns 2 and 3. I do that by addressing the columns on my data frame using the vector c(1:2, 6, 3:5) which is equivalent to c(1, 2, 6, 3, 4, 5).

> dataset <- dataset[,c(1:2, 6, 3:5)]
> dataset
  c1 c2 c2b c3 c4 c5
1  1  2  10  3  4  5
2  2  3  11  4  5  6
3  3  4  12  5  6  7
4  4  5  13  6  7  8
5  5  6  14  7  8  9

There!

Answer 7

You would like to add column z to the old data frame (old.df) defined by columns x and y.

z = rbinom(1000, 5, 0.25)
old.df <- data.frame(x = c(1:1000), y = rnorm(1:1000))
head(old.df)

Define a new data frame called new.df

new.df <- data.frame(x = old.df[,1], z, y = old.df[,2])
head(new.df)

Answer 8

Easy solution. In a data frame with 5 columns, If you want insert another column between 3 and 4...

tmp <- data[, 1:3]
tmp$example <- NA # or any value.
data <- cbind(tmp, data[, 4:5]

Answer 9

For what it's worth, I wrote a function to do this:

[removed]

---

I have now updated this function with before and after functionality and defaulting place to 1. It also has data table compatability:

#####
# FUNCTION: InsertDFCol(colName, colData, data, place = 1, before, after)
# DESCRIPTION: Takes in a data, a vector of data, a name for that vector and a place to insert this vector into
# the data frame as a new column. If you put place = 3, the new column will be in the 3rd position and push the current
# 3rd column up one (and each subsuquent column up one). All arguments must be set. Adding a before and after
# argument that will allow the user to say where to add the new column, before or after a particular column.
# Please note that if before or after is input, it WILL override the place argument if place is given as well. Also, place
# defaults to adding the new column to the front.
#####

InsertDFCol <- function(colName, colData, data, place = 1, before, after) {

  # A check on the place argument.
  if (length(names(data)) < place) stop("The place argument exceeds the number of columns in the data for the InsertDFCol function. Please check your place number")
  if (place <= 0 & (!missing(before) | !(missing(after)))) stop("You cannot put a column into the 0th or less than 0th position. Check your place argument.")
  if (place %% 1 != 0 & (!missing(before) | !(missing(after)))) stop("Your place value was not an integer.")
  if (!(missing(before)) & !missing(after)) stop("You cannot designate a before AND an after argument in the same function call. Please use only one or the other.")

  # Data Table compatability.
  dClass <- class(data)
  data <- as.data.frame(data)

  # Creating booleans to define whether before or after is given.
  useBefore <- !missing(before)
  useAfter <- !missing(after)

  # If either of these are true, then we are using the before or after argument, run the following code.
  if (useBefore | useAfter) {

    # Checking the before/after argument if given. Also adding regular expressions.
    if (useBefore) { CheckChoice(before, names(data)) ; before <- paste0("^", before, "$") }
    if (useAfter) { CheckChoice(after, names(data)) ; after <- paste0("^", after, "$") }

    # If before or after is given, replace "place" with the appropriate number.
    if (useBefore) { newPlace <- grep(before, names(data)) ; if (length(newPlace) > 1) { stop("Your before argument matched with more than one column name. Do you have duplicate column names?!") }}
    if (useAfter) { newPlace <- grep(after, names(data)) ; if (length(newPlace) > 1) { stop("Your after argument matched with more than one column name. Do you have duplicate column names?!") }}
    if (useBefore) place <- newPlace # Overriding place.
    if (useAfter) place <- newPlace + 1 # Overriding place.

  }

  # Making the new column.
  data[, colName] <- colData

  # Finding out how to reorder this.
  # The if statement handles the case where place = 1.
  currentPlace <- length(names(data)) # Getting the place of our data (which should have been just added at the end).
  if (place == 1) {

    colOrder <- c(currentPlace, 1:(currentPlace - 1))

  } else if (place == currentPlace) { # If the place to add the new data was just at the end of the data. Which is stupid...but we'll add support anyway.

    colOrder <- 1:currentPlace

  } else { # Every other case.

    firstHalf <- 1:(place - 1) # Finding the first half on columns that come before the insertion.
    secondHalf <- place:(currentPlace - 1) # Getting the second half, which comes after the insertion.
    colOrder <- c(firstHalf, currentPlace, secondHalf) # Putting that order together.

  }

  # Reordering the data.
  data <- subset(data, select = colOrder)

  # Data Table compatability.
  if (dClass[1] == "data.table") data <- as.data.table(data)

  # Returning.
  return(data)

}

---

I realized I also did not include CheckChoice:

#####
# FUNCTION: CheckChoice(names, dataNames, firstWord == "Oops" message = TRUE)                                                                                               
# DESCRIPTION: Takes the column names of a data frame and checks to make sure whatever "choice" you made (be it 
# your choice of dummies or your choice of chops) is actually in the data frame columns. Makes troubleshooting easier. 
# This function is also important in prechecking names to make sure the formula ends up being right. Use it after 
# adding in new data to check the "choose" options. Set firstWord to the first word you want said before an exclamation point.
# The warn argument (previously message) can be set to TRUE if you only want to 
#####

CheckChoice <- function(names, dataNames, firstWord = "Oops", warn = FALSE) {

  for (name in names) {

    if (warn == TRUE) { if(!(name %in% dataNames)) { warning(paste0(firstWord, "! The column/value/argument, ", name, ", was not valid OR not in your data! Check your input! This is a warning message of that!")) } }
    if (warn == FALSE) { if(!(name %in% dataNames)) { stop(paste0(firstWord, "! The column/value/argument, " , name, ", was not valid OR not in your data! Check your input!")) } }

  }
}

Answer 10

I would simply use cbind() for this:

> df <- data.frame(a=1:5,
+                  b=10:14,
+                  c=rep(0,5),
+                  d=7:11)
> 
> z <- LETTERS[1:5]
> df <- cbind(df[,1:2], z, df[,3:4]) # Puts the z column between 2nd and 3rd column of df
> df
  a  b z c  d
1 1 10 A 0  7
2 2 11 B 0  8
3 3 12 C 0  9
4 4 13 D 0 10
5 5 14 E 0 11

Answer 11

This function inserts one zero column between all pre-existent columns in a data frame.

insertaCols<-function(dad){   
  nueva<-as.data.frame(matrix(rep(0,nrow(daf)*ncol(daf)*2 ),ncol=ncol(daf)*2))  
   for(k in 1:ncol(daf)){   
      nueva[,(k*2)-1]=daf[,k]   
      colnames(nueva)[(k*2)-1]=colnames(daf)[k]  
      }  
   return(nueva)   
  }

Answer 12

Here is a an example of how to move a column from last to first position. It combines [ with ncol. I thought it would be useful to have a very short answer here for the busy reader:

d = mtcars
d[, c(ncol(d), 1:(ncol(d)-1))] 

Answer 13

You can use the append() function to insert items into vectors or lists (dataframes are lists). Simply:

df <- data.frame(a=c(1,2), b=c(3,4), c=c(5,6))

df <- as.data.frame(append(df, list(d=df$b+df$c), after=2))

Or, if you want to specify the position by name use which:

df <- as.data.frame(append(df, list(d=df$b+df$c), after=which(names(df)=="b")))

Answer 14

`

data1 <- data.frame(col1=1:4, col2=5:8, col3=9:12)
row.names(data1) <- c("row1","row2","row3","row4")
data1
data2 <- data.frame(col1=21:24, col2=25:28, col3=29:32)
row.names(data2) <- c("row1","row2","row3","row4")
data2
insertPosition = 2
leftBlock <- unlist(data1[,1:(insertPosition-1)])
insertBlock <- unlist(data2[,1:length(data2[1,])])
rightBlock <- unlist(data1[,insertPosition:length(data1[1,])])
newData <- matrix(c(leftBlock, insertBlock, rightBlock), nrow=length(data1[,1]), byrow=FALSE)
newData

`

Answer 15

R has no functionality to specify where a new column is added. E.g., mtcars$mycol<-'foo'. It always is added as last column. Using other means (e.g., dplyr's select()) you can move the mycol to a desired position. This is not ideal and R may want to try to change that in the future.

Answer 16

You can do it like below -

df <- data.frame(a=1:4, b=5:8, c=9:12)
df['d'] <- seq(10,13)
df <- df[,c('a','b','d','c')]

Answer 17

df <- data.frame(a=c(1,2), b=c(3,4), c=c(5,6))
df %>%
  mutate(d= a/2) %>%
  select(a, b, d, c)

results

  a b   d c
1 1 3 0.5 5
2 2 4 1.0 6

I suggest to use dplyr::select after dplyr::mutate. It has many helpers to select/de-select subset of columns.

In the context of this question the order by which you select will be reflected in the output data.frame.

Answer 18

When you can not assume that column b comes before c you can use match to find the column number of both, min to get the lower column number and seq_len to get a sequence until this column. Then you can use this index first as a positive subset, than place the new column d and then use the sequence again as a negative subset.

i <- seq_len(min(match(c("b", "c"), colnames(x))))
data.frame(x[i], d, x[-i])
#cbind(x[i], d, x[-i]) #Alternative
#  a b  d c
#1 1 4 10 7
#2 2 5 11 8
#3 3 6 12 9

In case you know that column b comes before c you can place the new column d after b:

i <- seq_len(match("b", colnames(x)))
data.frame(x[i], d, x[-i])
#  a b  d c
#1 1 4 10 7
#2 2 5 11 8
#3 3 6 12 9

Data:

x <- data.frame(a = 1:3, b = 4:6, c = 7:9)
d <- 10:12