Is there an R function that unifies multiple columns?

Question

I have a data.frame with two factor variables. Those two variables contain identical data except for when some values are missing. I want to end up with a data.frame with a third column that contains the complete data.

Example:

df<-data.frame(UID = 1:8,
               A = c("blue", NA, "blue", NA, "green", NA, "green", "green"),
               B = c("blue", "blue", NA, "blue", NA, "green", NA, "green"))

I am looking for the third column to equal;

df$C<-c(rep("blue", 4), rep("green", 4))

I have tried using tidyr::unite to no avail. I know this is probably a bad idea, LOL. I figure there is either a really simple answer or that it is not possible, LOL. Any help is much appreciated.

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 20 '20 at 23:55

1

We can use coalesce

library(dplyr)
df <-  df %>% 
          mutate(C = coalesce(A, B))

answered Nov 20 '20 at 23:55

akrun

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OMG! I knew it was going to be something super simple. I was unfamiliar with this function, so thank you so much for answering! – Dustin Nov 20 '20 at 23:57

Is there an R function that unifies multiple columns?

1 Answers1