How to Select Specific Columns in R dataframe? Last Updated : 21 Dec, 2023 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report In this article, we will discuss how to select specific columns from a data frame in the R Programming Language. Selecting specific Columns Using Base R by column name In this approach to select a specific column, the user needs to write the name of the column name in the square bracket with the name of the given data frame as per the requirement to get those specific columns needed by the user. Syntax: data_frame R # Creating DataFrame gfg <- data.frame(a=c(5, 1, 1, 5, 6, 7, 5, 4, 7, 9), b=c(1, 8, 6, 8, 6, 7, 4, 1, 7, 3), c=c(7, 1, 8, 9, 4, 1, 5, 6, 3, 7), d=c(4, 6, 8, 4, 6, 4, 8, 9, 8, 7), e=c(3, 1, 6, 4, 8, 9, 7, 8, 9, 4)) # Selecting specific Columns Using Base # R by column name gfg[c('b', 'd', 'e')] Output: b d e1 1 4 32 8 6 13 6 8 64 8 4 45 6 6 86 7 4 97 4 8 78 1 9 89 7 8 910 3 7 4 Selecting specific Columns Using Base R by column index In this approach to select the specific columns, the user needs to use the square brackets with the data frame given, and. With it, the user also needs to use the index of columns inside of the square bracket where the indexing starts with 1, and as per the requirements of the user has to give the required column index to inside the brackets Syntax: data_frame R # Creating DataFrame gfg < - data.frame(a=c(5, 1, 1, 5, 6, 7, 5, 4, 7, 9), b=c(1, 8, 6, 8, 6, 7, 4, 1, 7, 3), c=c(7, 1, 8, 9, 4, 1, 5, 6, 3, 7), d=c(4, 6, 8, 4, 6, 4, 8, 9, 8, 7), e=c(3, 1, 6, 4, 8, 9, 7, 8, 9, 4)) # Selecting specific Columns Using Base R # by column index gfg[c(2, 4, 5)] Output: b d e1 1 4 32 8 6 13 6 8 64 8 4 45 6 6 86 7 4 97 4 8 78 1 9 89 7 8 910 3 7 4 Selecting specific columns by subsetting data by column name In this method of selecting specific columns by subsetting data, the user needs to do the specification of a character vector containing the names of the columns to extract, the user has to enter the vector of the characters which corresponds to the column name in the square bracket with the data frame Syntax: data_frame[,c(column_name_1,column_name_2,...)] R # Creating DataFrame gfg < - data.frame(a=c(5, 1, 1, 5, 6, 7, 5, 4, 7, 9), b=c(1, 8, 6, 8, 6, 7, 4, 1, 7, 3), c=c(7, 1, 8, 9, 4, 1, 5, 6, 3, 7), d=c(4, 6, 8, 4, 6, 4, 8, 9, 8, 7), e=c(3, 1, 6, 4, 8, 9, 7, 8, 9, 4)) # Selecting specific columns by subsetting # data by column name gfg[, c('b', 'd', 'e')] Output: b d e1 1 4 32 8 6 13 6 8 64 8 4 45 6 6 86 7 4 97 4 8 78 1 9 89 7 8 910 3 7 4 Selecting specific columns by subsetting data by column index In this method of selecting specific columns by subsetting data, the user needs to do the specification of an integer vector containing the index of the columns to extract, the user has to enter the vector of the indexes which corresponds to the column index in the square bracket with the data frame Syntax: data_frame[,c(column_index_1,column_index_2,...)] R # Creating DataFrame gfg < - data.frame(a=c(5, 1, 1, 5, 6, 7, 5, 4, 7, 9), b=c(1, 8, 6, 8, 6, 7, 4, 1, 7, 3), c=c(7, 1, 8, 9, 4, 1, 5, 6, 3, 7), d=c(4, 6, 8, 4, 6, 4, 8, 9, 8, 7), e=c(3, 1, 6, 4, 8, 9, 7, 8, 9, 4)) # Selecting specific columns by subsetting data # by column index: gfg[, c(2, 4, 5)] Output: b d e1 1 4 32 8 6 13 6 8 64 8 4 45 6 6 86 7 4 97 4 8 78 1 9 89 7 8 910 3 7 4 Selecting specific columns by Subsetting Data with select Argument of subset Function Subset function: This function will be returning the subsets of data frames that meet conditions. Syntax: subset(x, subset, select, drop = FALSE, …) Parameters: x: object to be subsetted. subset: logical expression indicating elements or rows to keep: missing values are taken as false. select: expression, indicating columns to select from a data frame. drop: passed on to [ indexing operator. …: further arguments to be passed to or from other methods. R # Creating DataFrame gfg <- data.frame(a=c(5, 1, 1, 5, 6, 7, 5, 4, 7, 9), b=c(1, 8, 6, 8, 6, 7, 4, 1, 7, 3), c=c(7, 1, 8, 9, 4, 1, 5, 6, 3, 7), d=c(4, 6, 8, 4, 6, 4, 8, 9, 8, 7), e=c(3, 1, 6, 4, 8, 9, 7, 8, 9, 4)) # Selecting specific columns by Subsetting # Data with select Argument of subset Function subset(gfg, select=c('b', 'd', 'e')) Output: b d e1 1 4 32 8 6 13 6 8 64 8 4 45 6 6 86 7 4 97 4 8 78 1 9 89 7 8 910 3 7 4 Selecting specific columns using dplyr package by column name In this approach to select the specific columns of the given data frame, the user needs first install and import the dplyr package in the working R console of the user and then call the select function and pass the name of the required columns as the argument of this function Syntax: data_frame %>% select(column_name_1,column_name_2,...) R # Importing dplyr library library("dplyr") # Creating DataFrame gfg < - data.frame(a=c(5, 1, 1, 5, 6, 7, 5, 4, 7, 9), b=c(1, 8, 6, 8, 6, 7, 4, 1, 7, 3), c=c(7, 1, 8, 9, 4, 1, 5, 6, 3, 7), d=c(4, 6, 8, 4, 6, 4, 8, 9, 8, 7), e=c(3, 1, 6, 4, 8, 9, 7, 8, 9, 4)) # Selecting specific columns using dplyr # package by column name gfg %>% select(b, d, e) Output: b d e1 1 4 32 8 6 13 6 8 64 8 4 45 6 6 86 7 4 97 4 8 78 1 9 89 7 8 910 3 7 4 Selecting specific columns using dplyr package by column index In this approach to select the specific columns of the given data frame, the user needs first install and import the dplyr package in the working R console of the user and then call the select function and pass the index of the required columns as the argument of this function Syntax: data_frame %>% select(column_index_1,column_index_2,...) R # Importing dplyr library library("dplyr") # Creating DataFrame gfg < - data.frame(a=c(5, 1, 1, 5, 6, 7, 5, 4, 7, 9), b=c(1, 8, 6, 8, 6, 7, 4, 1, 7, 3), c=c(7, 1, 8, 9, 4, 1, 5, 6, 3, 7), d=c(4, 6, 8, 4, 6, 4, 8, 9, 8, 7), e=c(3, 1, 6, 4, 8, 9, 7, 8, 9, 4)) # Selecting specific columns using dplyr # package by column index gfg %>% select(2, 4, 5) Output: b d e1 1 4 32 8 6 13 6 8 64 8 4 45 6 6 86 7 4 97 4 8 78 1 9 89 7 8 910 3 7 4 Comment More infoAdvertise with us Next Article How to Replace specific values in column in R DataFrame ? geetansh044 Follow Improve Article Tags : R Language R Programs R DataFrame-Programs R-DataFrame Similar Reads How to Stack DataFrame Columns in R? A dataframe is a tubular structure composed of rows and columns. The dataframe columns can be stacked together to divide the columns depending on the values contained within them. Method 1: Using stack method The cbind() operation is used to stack the columns of the data frame together. 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