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In R, you can use the paste() or paste0() functions to concatenate strings. The paste() function allows you to add a separator between strings, while paste0() will not add any characters between the strings. Other functions such as sprintf() and glue() can also be used to join strings in R. Examples are provided to demonstrate the use of the various functions to concatenate strings.
You can use the paste() function in R to quickly concatenate multiple strings together:
paste(string1, string2, string3 , sep = " ")
The following examples show how to use this function in practice.
Example 1: Concatenate String Vectors
Suppose we have the following strings in R:
#create three string variables
a <- "hey"
b <- "there"
c <- "friend"
We can use the paste() function to quickly concatenate these three strings into one string:
#concatenate the three strings into one string
d <- paste(a, b, c)
#view result
d
[1] "hey there friend"
The three strings have been concatenated into one string, separated by spaces.
We can also use a different value for the separator by supplying a different value to the sep argument:
#concatenate the three strings into one string, separated by dashes
d <- paste(a, b, c, sep = "-")
[1] "hey-there-friend"
Example 2: Concatenate String Columns in Data Frame
Suppose we have the following data frame in R:
#create data frame
df <- data.frame(first=c('Andy', 'Bob', 'Carl', 'Doug'),
last=c('Smith', 'Miller', 'Johnson', 'Rogers'),
points=c(99, 90, 86, 88))
#view data frame
df
first last points
1 Andy Smith 99
2 Bob Miller 90
3 Carl Johnson 86
4 Doug Rogers 88
We can use the paste() function to concatenate the “first” and “last” columns into a new column called “name”:
#concatenate 'first' and 'last' name columns into one column
df$name = paste(df$first, df$last)
#view updated data frame
df
first last points name
1 Andy Smith 99 Andy Smith
2 Bob Miller 90 Bob Miller
3 Carl Johnson 86 Carl Johnson
4 Doug Rogers 88 Doug Rogers
Notice that the strings in the “first” and “last” columns have been concatenated in the “name” column.
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in R: