How to rename a single column in a data.frame?

I know if I have a data frame with more than 1 column, then I can use

colnames(x) <- c("col1","col2") 

to rename the columns. How to do this if it's just one column? Meaning a vector or data frame with only one column.

Example:

trSamp <- data.frame(sample(trainer$index, 10000)) head(trSamp ) # sample.trainer.index..10000. # 1 5907862 # 2 2181266 # 3 7368504 # 4 1949790 # 5 3475174 # 6 6062879 ncol(trSamp) # [1] 1 class(trSamp) # [1] "data.frame" class(trSamp[1]) # [1] "data.frame" class(trSamp[,1]) # [1] "numeric" colnames(trSamp)[2] <- "newname2" # Error in names(x) <- value : # 'names' attribute [2] must be the same length as the vector [1] 

20 Answers

This is a generalized way in which you do not have to remember the exact location of the variable:

# df = dataframe # old.var.name = The name you don't like anymore # new.var.name = The name you want to get names(df)[names(df) == 'old.var.name'] <- 'new.var.name' 

This code pretty much does the following:

1. names(df) looks into all the names in the df
2. [names(df) == old.var.name] extracts the variable name you want to check
3. <- 'new.var.name' assigns the new variable name.

colnames(trSamp)[2] <- "newname2" 

attempts to set the second column's name. Your object only has one column, so the command throws an error. This should be sufficient:

colnames(trSamp) <- "newname2" 

colnames(df)[colnames(df) == 'oldName'] <- 'newName' 

This is an old question, but it is worth noting that you can now use setnames from the data.table package.

library(data.table) setnames(DF, "oldName", "newName") # or since the data.frame in question is just one column: setnames(DF, "newName") # And for reference's sake, in general (more than once column) nms <- c("col1.name", "col2.name", etc...) setnames(DF, nms) 

This can also be done using Hadley's plyr package, and the rename function.

library(plyr) df <- data.frame(foo=rnorm(1000)) df <- rename(df,c('foo'='samples')) 

You can rename by the name (without knowing the position) and perform multiple renames at once. After doing a merge, for example, you might end up with:

 letterid id.x id.y 1 70 2 1 2 116 6 5 3 116 6 4 4 116 6 3 5 766 14 9 6 766 14 13 

Which you can then rename in one step using:

letters <- rename(letters,c("id.x" = "source", "id.y" = "target")) letterid source target 1 70 2 1 2 116 6 5 3 116 6 4 4 116 6 3 5 766 14 9 6 766 14 13 

I think the best way of renaming columns is by using the dplyr package like this:

require(dplyr) df = rename(df, new_col01 = old_col01, new_col02 = old_col02, ...) 

It works the same for renaming one or many columns in any dataset.

I find that the most convenient way to rename a single column is using dplyr::rename_at :

library(dplyr) cars %>% rename_at("speed",~"new") %>% head cars %>% rename_at(vars(speed),~"new") %>% head cars %>% rename_at(1,~"new") %>% head # new dist # 1 4 2 # 2 4 10 # 3 7 4 # 4 7 22 # 5 8 16 # 6 9 10 

• works well in pipe chaines
• convenient when names are stored in variables
• works with a name or an column index
• clear and compact

I like the next style for rename dataframe column names one by one.

colnames(df)[which(colnames(df) == 'old_colname')] <- 'new_colname' 

where

which(colnames(df) == 'old_colname') 

returns by the index of the specific column.

Let df be the dataframe you have with col names myDays and temp. If you want to rename "myDays" to "Date",

library(plyr) rename(df,c("myDays" = "Date")) 

or with pipe, you can

dfNew <- df %>% plyr::rename(c("myDays" = "Date")) 

This is likely already out there, but I was playing with renaming fields while searching out a solution and tried this on a whim. Worked for my purposes.

Table1$FieldNewName <- Table1$FieldOldName Table1$FieldOldName <- NULL 

Edit begins here....

This works as well.

df <- rename(df, c("oldColName" = "newColName")) 

You can use the rename.vars in the gdata package.

library(gdata) df <- rename.vars(df, from = "oldname", to = "newname") 

This is particularly useful where you have more than one variable name to change or you want to append or pre-pend some text to the variable names, then you can do something like:

df <- rename.vars(df, from = c("old1", "old2", "old3", to = c("new1", "new2", "new3")) 

For an example of appending text to a subset of variables names see:

Try:

colnames(x)[2] <- 'newname2' 

You could also try 'upData' from 'Hmisc' package.

library(Hmisc)

trSamp = upData(trSamp, rename=c(sample.trainer.index..10000. = 'newname2'))

If you know that your dataframe has only one column, you can use: names(trSamp) <- "newname2"

The OP's question has been well and truly answered. However, here's a trick that may be useful in some situations: partial matching of the column name, irrespective of its position in a dataframe:

Partial matching on the name:

d <- data.frame(name1 = NA, Reported.Cases..WHO..2011. = NA, name3 = NA) ## name1 Reported.Cases..WHO..2011. name3 ## 1 NA NA NA names(d)[grepl("Reported", names(d))] <- "name2" ## name1 name2 name3 ## 1 NA NA NA 

Another example: partial matching on the presence of "punctuation":

d <- data.frame(name1 = NA, Reported.Cases..WHO..2011. = NA, name3 = NA) ## name1 Reported.Cases..WHO..2011. name3 ## 1 NA NA NA names(d)[grepl("[[:punct:]]", names(d))] <- "name2" ## name1 name2 name3 ## 1 NA NA NA 

These were examples I had to deal with today, I thought might be worth sharing.

I would simply change a column name to the dataset with the new name I want with the following code: names(dataset)[index_value] <- "new_col_name"

I would simply add a new column to the data frame with the name I want and get the data for it from the existing column. like this:

dataf$value=dataf$Article1Order 

then I remove the old column! like this:

dataf$Article1Order<-NULL 

This code might seem silly! But it works perfectly...

I found colnames() argument easier

select some column from the data frame

df <- data.frame(df[, c( "hhid","b1005", "b1012_imp", "b3004a")]) 

and rename the selected column in order,

colnames(df) <- c("hhid", "income", "cost", "credit") 

check the names and the values to be sure

names(df);head(df) 

We can use rename_with to rename columns with a function (stringr functions, for example).

Consider the following data df_1:

df_1 <- data.frame( x = replicate(n = 3, expr = rnorm(n = 3, mean = 10, sd = 1)), y = sample(x = 1:2, size = 10, replace = TRUE) ) names(df_1) #[1] "x.1" "x.2" "x.3" "y" 

Rename all variables with dplyr::everything():

library(tidyverse) df_1 %>% rename_with(.data = ., .cols = everything(.), .fn = str_replace, pattern = '.*', replacement = str_c('var', seq_along(.), sep = '_')) %>% names() #[1] "var_1" "var_2" "var_3" "var_4" 

Rename by name particle with some dplyr verbs (starts_with, ends_with, contains, matches, ...).

Example with . (x variables):

df_1 %>% rename_with(.data = ., .cols = contains('.'), .fn = str_replace, pattern = '.*', replacement = str_c('var', seq_along(.), sep = '_')) %>% names() #[1] "var_1" "var_2" "var_3" "y" 

Rename by class with many functions of class test, like is.integer, is.numeric, is.factor...

Example with is.integer (y):

df_1 %>% rename_with(.data = ., .cols = is.integer, .fn = str_replace, pattern = '.*', replacement = str_c('var', seq_along(.), sep = '_')) %>% names() #[1] "x.1" "x.2" "x.3" "var_1" 

The warning:

Warning messages: 1: In stri_replace_first_regex(string, pattern, fix_replacement(replacement), : longer object length is not a multiple of shorter object length 2: In names[cols] <- .fn(names[cols], ...) : number of items to replace is not a multiple of replacement length

It is not relevant, as it is just an inconsistency of seq_along(.) with the replace function.

library(dplyr) rename(data, de=de.y)