Sort descending all columns of data.frame

Question

I'm fiddling with this now for a while, but can't find reasonable solution.

I would like to sort in descending order all columns of data.frame.

Sample data for instance:

CustomData <- data.frame(Value1=rnorm(100,1,2), Value2=rnorm(100,2,3),
                         Value3=rexp(100,5), Value4=rexp(100,2))

Works for one column:

CustomData[order(CustomData$Value1, decreasing=FALSE), ]

How sort all the columns data in decreasing/increasing order in reasonable manner? Thx.

I have also tried something like this as posted elsewhere, but doesn't work as stated.

CustomData[do.call(order, as.list(CustomData)),]

possible duplicate of [How to sort a dataframe by column(s) in R](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1296646/how-to-sort-a-dataframe-by-columns-in-r) — Metrics, Aug 20 '13 at 17:39
Please note that `CustomData[do.call(order, as.list(CustomData)),]` sorts the whole dataframe *using columns other than the first one only to break ties*, which is a different problem than what you state - you want to sort the columns *independently*. — Ferdinand.kraft, Aug 20 '13 at 18:05
It seems like one of R's map or apply routines would help for mapping sort over the columns. — Paul, Aug 21 '13 at 02:17

chupvl · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-02T05:15:19.730

17

CD.sorted <- apply(CustomData, 2, sort, decreasing=F)
#2 == column, 1 == row

edited Nov 02 '20 at 05:15

answered Aug 20 '13 at 17:28

chupvl

2 == column, 1 == row – chupvl Aug 20 '13 at 17:29
I suggest to read a "R cookbook" - it contains a lot of real-world examples, that was very helpful for me in the begging. – chupvl Aug 20 '13 at 17:37
Yes, I'm reading/learning, but when time is pressing, I don't have the luxury to spend hours on tasks like this. Thx. – Maximilian Aug 20 '13 at 17:39
I am not judging, that's just a really good book, example-based. – chupvl Aug 20 '13 at 17:40
Found it now in pdf. Looks great. Thanks – Maximilian Aug 20 '13 at 17:50
2

To keep the dataframe structure, you can use this: `data.frame(lapply(CustomData,sort,decreasing=F))` – Ferdinand.kraft Aug 20 '13 at 18:08
@chupvl: The R book is very basic indeed. It is for someone who is starting with statistics+programming from scratch. – Maximilian Aug 21 '13 at 15:52

score 7 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 26 '19 at 16:19

7

Using do.call is much faster.

For ascending order.

CustomData[do.call(order, CustomData),]

For decreasing order the syntax is a bit more elaborate because we have to pass the 'decreasing' argument.

CustomData[do.call(order, c(CustomData, list(decreasing=TRUE))),]

answered Jun 26 '19 at 16:19

user2332849

2 Answers2