Shifting Column Selection in Dataframe in R

Question

I have a data frame with 30 columns. My goal is to select 5 columns at a time. Based on a condition, I want to shift my selection in the data frame 5 columns.

For example:

Original dataframe column selection:

Col6 Col7 Col8 Col9 Col10

If condition is true, select:

Col1 Col2 Col3 Col4 Col5

If condition is false, select:

Col11 Col12 Col13 Col14 Col15.

I don't want to call out those specific columns though, I want to write a general formula that would call out a shift of 5 columns to the right or left based on whether the condition was true or false.

Any help would be great. Thanks!

So, you are only selecting columns 1:5 and 11:15 based on the condition? — akrun, Jul 13 '15 at 16:52
I can't but I basically just want to shift my selection a specific ncolumns to the right or left from my starting column selection point. — Nick, Jul 13 '15 at 16:53
@akrun I'm not starting with those columns specifically, I just want to know if there is a function that can shift my column selection a number of columns to the left of right — Nick, Jul 13 '15 at 16:54

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 13 '15 at 16:53

2

From what you asked I developed the following code. Please clarify the question if this is not what you are looking for. Assuming that your data frame is df:

n <- 1

df[,n:n+4]

if (condition){
  n <- n + 5
} else if (condition && n != 1) {
  n <- n - 5
}

answered Jul 13 '15 at 16:53

Paulo MiraMor

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@Nick If this answer was what you were expecting, would you mind accepting it as correct? Thanks – Paulo MiraMor Jul 13 '15 at 17:03
I'm new to this, how do I do that? – Nick Jul 13 '15 at 17:25
Just click the check mark on the left side of the answer. – Paulo MiraMor Jul 13 '15 at 17:26

Shifting Column Selection in Dataframe in R

1 Answers1