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cbind in R is a useful function for combining vectors, matrices, and data frames by columns. It takes a number of arguments, all of which can be either vectors, matrices or data frames. cbind merges the arguments by column, allowing one to create a single object composed of the columns of each of the arguments. Examples of cbind in action can be found in the R documentation.
The cbind function in R, short for column-bind, can be used to combine vectors, matrices and data frames by column.
The following examples show how to use this function in practice.
Example 1: Cbind Vectors into a Matrix
The following code shows how to use cbind to column-bind two vectors into a single matrix:
#create two vectors a <- c(1, 3, 3, 4, 5) b <- c(7, 7, 8, 3, 2) #cbind the two vectors into a matrix new_matrix <- cbind(a, b) #view matrix new_matrix a b [1,] 1 7 [2,] 3 7 [3,] 3 8 [4,] 4 3 [5,] 5 2 #view class of new_matrix class(new_matrix) [1] "matrix" "array"
Example 2: Cbind Vector to a Data Frame
The following code shows how to use cbind to column-bind a vector to an existing data frame:
#create data frame df <- data.frame(a=c(1, 3, 3, 4, 5), b=c(7, 7, 8, 3, 2), c=c(3, 3, 6, 6, 8)) #define vector d <- c(11, 14, 16, 17, 22) #cbind vector to data frame df_new <- cbind(df, d) #view data frame df_new a b c d 1 1 7 3 11 2 3 7 3 14 3 3 8 6 16 4 4 3 6 17 5 5 2 8 22
Note that R will throw an error if the length of the vector is not the same as the length of the columns in the existing data frame.
Example 3: Cbind Multiple Vectors to a Data Frame
The following code shows how to use cbind to column-bind multiple vectors to an existing data frame:
#create data frame df <- data.frame(a=c(1, 3, 3, 4, 5), b=c(7, 7, 8, 3, 2), c=c(3, 3, 6, 6, 8)) #define vectors d <- c(11, 14, 16, 17, 22) e <- c(34, 35, 36, 36, 40) #cbind vectors to data frame df_new <- cbind(df, d, e) #view data frame df_new a b c d e 1 1 7 3 11 34 2 3 7 3 14 35 3 3 8 6 16 36 4 4 3 6 17 36 5 5 2 8 22 40
Example 4: Cbind Two Data Frames
The following code shows how to use cbind to column-bind two data frames into one data frame:
#create two data frames df1 <- data.frame(a=c(1, 3, 3, 4, 5), b=c(7, 7, 8, 3, 2), c=c(3, 3, 6, 6, 8)) df2 <- data.frame(d=c(11, 14, 16, 17, 22), e=c(34, 35, 36, 36, 40)) #cbind two data frames into one data frame df_new <- cbind(df1, df2) #view data frame df_new a b c d e 1 1 7 3 11 34 2 3 7 3 14 35 3 3 8 6 16 36 4 4 3 6 17 36 5 5 2 8 22 40
Bonus: If you want to bind together vectors, matrices, or data frames by rows, you can used the function instead.