Using dcast to reshape a data frame

Question

I am having trouble understanding how I can use dcast (or any other function) to restructure my data frame.

I was given a data frame that looks something like this:

Patient	DOB	Gender	variable	value
1234	2-12-19	F	Age	25
1235	2-13-19	M	Age	25
1236	2-14-19	F	BMI	25
1237	2-15-19	M	Age	25
1238	2-16-19	F	Height	55
1239	2-17-19	F	Age	25

I want to be able to produce a data frame where each of the variables in the variable column are there own columns with their respective values.

I am having trouble understanding how dcast can be used when there are multiple different variables in one column to sort.

I want my final data frame to look something like this:

Patient	DOB	Gender	Age	BMI	Height
1234	2-12-19	F	25	25	55
1235	2-13-19	M	25	14	34
1236	2-14-19	F	25	30	20
1237	2-15-19	M	25	45	25
1238	2-16-19	F	55	25	13
1239	2-17-19	F	25	56	40

Does this answer your question? [How to reshape data from long to wide format](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5890584/how-to-reshape-data-from-long-to-wide-format) — Martin Gal, Nov 14 '21 at 01:26

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 14 '21 at 01:10

You may use the following code to spread out the variables in variable column:

library(tidyr)

df %>%
  pivot_wider(names_from = variable, values_from = value)

# A tibble: 6 x 6
  Patient DOB     Gender   Age   BMI Height
    <int> <chr>   <chr>  <int> <int>  <int>
1    1234 2-12-19 F         25    NA     NA
2    1235 2-13-19 M         25    NA     NA
3    1236 2-14-19 F         NA    25     NA
4    1237 2-15-19 M         25    NA     NA
5    1238 2-16-19 F         NA    NA     55
6    1239 2-17-19 F         25    NA     NA

Using dcast to reshape a data frame

1 Answers1