R Programming - Change Multiple Column Names in a Data Frame

Last update on June 04 2025 12:53:21 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Write a R program to change more than one column name of a given data frame.

Sample Solution:

R Programming Code:

# Create a data frame with columns 'name', 'score', 'attempts', and 'qualify'
exam_data = data.frame(
  name = c('Anastasia', 'Dima', 'Katherine', 'James', 'Emily', 'Michael', 'Matthew', 'Laura', 'Kevin', 'Jonas'),
  score = c(12.5, 9, 16.5, 12, 9, 20, 14.5, 13.5, 8, 19),
  attempts = c(1, NA, 2, NA, 2, NA, 1, NA, 2, 1),
  qualify = c('yes', 'no', 'yes', 'no', 'no', 'yes', 'yes', 'no', 'no', 'yes')
)

# Print the original data frame
print("Original dataframe:")
print(exam_data)

# Print a message indicating that column names will be changed
print("Change more than one column name of the said dataframe:")

# Change the column name 'name' to 'student_name'
colnames(exam_data)[which(names(exam_data) == "name")] = "student_name"

# Change the column name 'score' to 'avg_score'
colnames(exam_data)[which(names(exam_data) == "score")] = "avg_score"

# Print the data frame after changing column names
print(exam_data)

Output:

[1] "Original dataframe:"
        name score attempts qualify
1  Anastasia  12.5        1     yes
2       Dima   9.0       NA      no
3  Katherine  16.5        2     yes
4      James  12.0       NA      no
5      Emily   9.0        2      no
6    Michael  20.0       NA     yes
7    Matthew  14.5        1     yes
8      Laura  13.5       NA      no
9      Kevin   8.0        2      no
10     Jonas  19.0        1     yes
[1] "Change more than one column name  of the said dataframe:"
   student_name avg_score attempts qualify
1     Anastasia      12.5        1     yes
2          Dima       9.0       NA      no
3     Katherine      16.5        2     yes
4         James      12.0       NA      no
5         Emily       9.0        2      no
6       Michael      20.0       NA     yes
7       Matthew      14.5        1     yes
8         Laura      13.5       NA      no
9         Kevin       8.0        2      no
10        Jonas      19.0        1     yes

Explanation:

Create Data Frame:

exam_data = data.frame(...):

Defines a data frame named exam_data with four columns: name, score, attempts, and qualify.
name column contains names of individuals.
score column contains their scores.
attempts column contains the number of attempts, with some NA values indicating missing data.
qualify column indicates whether the individual qualifies or not.

Print Original Data Frame:

print("Original dataframe:"):

Prints a message indicating that the original data frame will be displayed.

print(exam_data):

Displays the content of the exam_data data frame.

Print Column Name Change Message:

print("Change more than one column name of the said dataframe:"):

Prints a message indicating that multiple column names in the data frame will be changed.

Change Column Names:

colnames(exam_data)[which(names(exam_data) == "name")] = "student_name":

Changes the column name from name to student_name.

colnames(exam_data)[which(names(exam_data) == "score")] = "avg_score":

Changes the column name from score to avg_score.

Print Modified Data Frame:

print(exam_data):

Displays the exam_data data frame after the column names have been updated.

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