R programming, how do I sort data frame by string column in descending order?

Question

temp <- data.frame(x=c(1,2,3), y=c("ba", "ab", "cc"))
temp
  x y
1 1 ba
2 2 ab
3 3 cc

and I want to order by ascending x and descending y, but it doesn't work even I convert y from factor to string.

tt <- temp[order(-as.character(y)), ]

Error in -as.character(y) : invalid argument to unary operator

[This post](https://stackoverflow.com/a/51502077/8245406) is related, though not exactly the same. — Rui Barradas, Apr 07 '20 at 22:17

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 07 '20 at 21:50

3

We can use decreasing = TRUE

temp[order(as.character(temp$y), decreasing = TRUE),]

answered Apr 07 '20 at 21:50

akrun

sorry, I meant, I want to order by ascending x and descending y. like temp[order(x, -as.character(y)), ] – sunflower Apr 08 '20 at 13:43
@sunflower In that case, it would give the order of iinput example. Check `temp %>% arrange(x, desc(as.character(y)))` (from Lennyy's solution) – akrun Apr 08 '20 at 17:19

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 07 '20 at 21:53

2

With dplyr:

temp %>% 
  arrange(desc(y))

answered Apr 07 '20 at 21:53

Lennyy

2 Answers2