How to split a a long-string in a column in different string columns in R?

Question

If my first column of a matrix is a long string, how can I split it in different string columns? or instance:

     V1    V2   V3

a-b-c-d  1000  100

e-f-g-h  1100  110

and obtain:

     V1    V2   V3   V4   V5   V6

      a     b    c    d  1000  100

      e     f    g    h  1100  110

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8464312/convert-comma-separated-entry-to-columns or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4350440/split-a-column-of-a-data-frame-to-multiple-columns or https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18641951/splitting-a-dataframe-string-column-into-multiple-different-columns or ... — thelatemail, Oct 31 '17 at 23:41

Maurits Evers · Accepted Answer · 2017-11-01T03:59:57.663

1

# Your sample data
df <-  cbind.data.frame(
    V1 = c("a-b-c-d", "e-f-g-h"),
    V2 = c(1000, 1100),
    V3 = c(100, 110), stringsAsFactors = FALSE);

There ...

# Split and cbind new and old columns
df <- cbind.data.frame(
    do.call(rbind.data.frame, strsplit(df[, 1], "-")),
    df[, -1])
colnames(df) <- paste("V", seq(1:ncol(df)), sep = "");

df;
#  V1 V2 V3 V4   V5  V6
#1  a  b  c  d 1000 100
#2  e  f  g  h 1100 110

... and back again

# Concatenate columns 1-4
df <- cbind.data.frame(
    V1 = apply(df[, 1:4], 1, paste, collapse = "-"),
    df[, -(1:4)]);
colnames(df) <- paste("V", seq(1:ncol(df)), sep = "");    
df;
#       V1   V2  V3
#1 a-b-c-d 1000 100
#2 e-f-g-h 1100 110

edited Nov 01 '17 at 03:59

answered Oct 31 '17 at 23:38

Maurits Evers

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Thanks for your answer.. do you know how to make the inverse process? from the V1, V2, V3 and V4 to just one V1 with a-b-c-d? – Felipe Rincón Nov 01 '17 at 03:15
@FelipeRincón I've updated my answer, please take a look. – Maurits Evers Nov 01 '17 at 04:00
PS. If this answers your question, please accept the answer to close the question. – Maurits Evers Nov 01 '17 at 05:59
Not sure why this was downvoted. I posted my answer *before* this was flagged as a duplicate. – Maurits Evers Nov 01 '17 at 06:00
I voted it as good. Thank you very much! – Felipe Rincón Nov 01 '17 at 16:24
I voted it as good. Thank you very much! – Felipe Rincón Nov 01 '17 at 16:24
Mr Maurits Evers, could you give me an advise about how to solve this? https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48835464/how-to-manage-a-table-to-obtain-information-using-conditions – Felipe Rincón Feb 17 '18 at 14:11

How to split a a long-string in a column in different string columns in R?

1 Answers1

There ...

... and back again