changing string names of column through a function R

Question

I am trying to change the column names of a dataframe with a function, example below:

df <- data.frame(x = c(71.33,   74.98 ,  80 , 85.35  , 90.03),
                 y = c(119.17,  107.73 , 99.72 ,  75,  54.59))

df

change_name <- function(old_name, new_name, data) {
  data = plyr::rename(data, c(old_name = new_name))
  return(names(data))
}


change_name("x", "Var_x", df)

however it is giving me an error that I don't understand.

The following `from` values were not present in `x`: old_name
[1] "x" "y" 

Can anyone help? thanks!

Answer 1

change_name <- function(old_name, new_name, data) {
  data = plyr::rename(data, replace = setNames(new_name, nm=old_name))
  return(names(data))
}