Removing suffix from column names using rename_all?

Question

I have a data frame with a number of columns in a form var1.mean, var2.mean. I would like to strip the suffix ".mean" from all columns that contain it. I tried using rename_all in conjunction with regex in a pipe but could not come up with a correct syntax. Any suggestions?

score 29 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 30 '17 at 12:28

29

If you want to use the dplyr package, I'd recommend using the rename_at function.

Dframe <- data.frame(var1.mean = rnorm(10),
                     var2.mean = rnorm(10),
                     var1.sd = runif(10))

library(dplyr)

Dframe %>% 
  rename_at(.vars = vars(ends_with(".mean")),
            .funs = funs(sub("[.]mean$", "", .)))

answered Aug 30 '17 at 12:28

Benjamin

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Inside the rename_at(), ¿Why do you include .vars and .funs? – axme100 Dec 12 '18 at 17:00
1

those are argument names to `rename_at`. – Benjamin Dec 12 '18 at 18:04
3

`funs` and `rename_at` have been deprecated/superceded. You should now use `rename_with(~ gsub("[.]mean$", "", .x)` – Brian D Aug 06 '21 at 15:14

score 28 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 20 '21 at 05:54

28

Using new dplyr:

df %>% rename_with(~str_remove(., '.mean'))

answered Mar 20 '21 at 05:54

Reza

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I think this also requires the stringr library for str_remove. – Bradford Jul 26 '22 at 23:50
This also needs $ at the end (eg. `".mean$"`) to specify that the patten needs to be matched at the end of the column name (i.e suffix) – Dr Bala Soundararaj May 22 '23 at 18:00

score 10 · Answer 3 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

We can use rename_all

df1 %>%
   rename_all(.funs = funs(sub("\\..*", "", names(df1)))) %>%
   head(2)
#        var1        var2       var3       var1       var2       var3
#1 -0.5458808 -0.09411013  0.5266526 -1.3546636 0.08314367  0.5916817
#2  0.5365853 -0.08554095 -1.0736261 -0.9608088 2.78494703 -0.2883407

NOTE: If the column names are duplicated, it needs to be made unique with make.unique

data

set.seed(24)
df1 <- as.data.frame(matrix(rnorm(25*6), 25, 6, dimnames = list(NULL,
             paste0(paste0("var", 1:3), rep(c(".mean", ".sd"), each = 3)))))

score 9 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 29 '20 at 15:10

9

You may use gsub.

colnames(df) <- gsub('.mean','',colnames(df))

edited Jun 29 '20 at 15:10

M--

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answered Jun 29 '20 at 14:54

SigneMaten

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 30 '17 at 12:26

1

The below works for me

dat <- data.frame(var1.mean = 1, var2.mean = 2)
col_old <- colnames(dat)
col_new <- gsub(pattern = ".mean",replacement = "", x  = col_old)
colnames(dat) <- col_new

answered Aug 30 '17 at 12:26

shaojl7

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Using `pattern = "[.]mean$"` will ensure you only change variable names that end in `.mean`. – Benjamin Aug 30 '17 at 12:30

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Aug 30 '17 at 12:26

You can replace this names using stringi package stri_replace_last_regex function like this:

require(stringi)
df <- data.frame(1,2,3,4,5,6)
names(df) <- stri_paste("var",1:6,c(".mean",".sd"))
df
##  var1.mean var2.sd var3.mean var4.sd var5.mean var6.sd
##1         1       2         3       4         5       6
names(df) <- stri_replace_last_regex(names(df),"\\.mean$","")
df
##  var1 var2.sd var3 var4.sd var5 var6.sd
##1    1       2    3       4    5       6

The regex is \\.mean$ because you need to escape dot character (it has special meaning in regex) and also you can add $ sign at the end to ensure that you replace only names that ENDS with this pattern (if the .mean text is in the middle of string then it wan't be replaced).

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 30 '17 at 12:28

0

I would use stringsplit:

x <- as.data.frame(matrix(runif(16), ncol = 4))
colnames(x) <- c("var1.mean", "var2.mean", "var3.mean", "something.else")

colnames(x) <- strsplit(colnames(x), split = ".mean")
colnames(x)

answered Aug 30 '17 at 12:28

Rieneke

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score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 30 '17 at 14:26

Lot's of quick answers have been given, the most intuitive, to me would be:

Dframe <- data.frame(var1.mean = rnorm(10),        #Create Example
                     var2.mean = rnorm(10),
                     var1.sd = runif(10))
names(Dframe) <- gsub("[.]mean","",names(Dframe))  #remove ".mean"

Removing suffix from column names using rename_all?

8 Answers8

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