Customizing make.names function in R?

Question

I am automating a R code for which I have to use make.names function. Default behavior of make.names function is fine with me but when my table name contains a "-", I want the table name to be different.

For example, current behavior :

  > make.names("iris-ir")
    [1] "iris.ir"

But I want it to modify only in the case when I have "-" present in table name:

    > make.names("iris-ir")
    [1] "iris_ir"

How can I achieve this? EDIT: using only builtin packages.

`gsub`. Or `janitor::clean_names`. – alistaire May 04 '17 at 07:34 — alistaire, May 04 '17 at 07:34
Can you suggest me full code her with gsub here – HiveRLearner May 04 '17 at 08:10 — HiveRLearner, May 04 '17 at 08:10
`names(df) <- gsub('-', '_', names(df))` – alistaire May 04 '17 at 08:13 — alistaire, May 04 '17 at 08:13

sanyi14ka · Answer 1 · 2017-05-04T08:13:42.590

3

Use the following function:

library(dplyr)
make_names<-function(name)
  {
    name <- as.character(name)
    if(contains("-", vars = name))
       sub("-", "_", name)
  }

This should do what you want. Sorry, I forgot to mention that the contains function is in the dplyr package.

Without dplyr

make_names<-function(name)
  {
    name <- as.character(name)
    if(grepl("-", name, fixed = T))
       sub("-", "_", name)
    else
       name
  }

edited May 04 '17 at 08:13

answered May 04 '17 at 07:43

sanyi14ka

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14

`contains` is not a base R function afaik. When using packages, you should make that clear by loading them. – talat May 04 '17 at 07:46
Unfortunately I can not use dplyr package. I am automating some code of open source which can only use core packages – HiveRLearner May 04 '17 at 07:53
2

@HiveRLearner: then you need to state that requirement in your question – smci Jun 26 '18 at 23:59

Customizing make.names function in R?

1 Answers1