R - Data Reshaping

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Data Reshaping in R is about changing the way data is organized into rows and columns. Most of the time data processing in R is done by taking the input data as a data frame. It is easy to extract data from the rows and columns of a data frame but there are situations when we need the data frame in a format that is different from format in which we received it. R has many functions to split, merge and change the rows to columns and vice-versa in a data frame.

Joining Columns and Rows in a Data Frame

We can join multiple vectors to create a data frame using the cbind()function. Also we can merge two data frames using rbind() function.

# Create vector objects.
city <- c("Tampa","Seattle","Hartford","Denver")
state <- c("FL","WA","CT","CO")
zipcode <- c(33602,98104,06161,80294)

# Combine above three vectors into one data frame.
addresses <- cbind(city,state,zipcode)

# Print a header.
cat("# # # # The First data frame\n") 

# Print the data frame.
print(addresses)

# Create another data frame with similar columns
new.address <- data.frame(
   city = c("Lowry","Charlotte"),
   state = c("CO","FL"),
   zipcode = c("80230","33949"),
   stringsAsFactors = FALSE
)

# Print a header.
cat("# # # The Second data frame\n") 

# Print the data frame.
print(new.address)

# Combine rows form both the data frames.
all.addresses <- rbind(addresses,new.address)

# Print a header.
cat("# # # The combined data frame\n") 

# Print the result.
print(all.addresses)

When we execute the above code, it produces the following result −

# # # # The First data frame
     city       state zipcode
[1,] "Tampa"    "FL"  "33602"
[2,] "Seattle"  "WA"  "98104"
[3,] "Hartford" "CT"   "6161" 
[4,] "Denver"   "CO"  "80294"

# # # The Second data frame
       city       state   zipcode
1      Lowry      CO      80230
2      Charlotte  FL      33949

# # # The combined data frame
       city      state zipcode
1      Tampa     FL    33602
2      Seattle   WA    98104
3      Hartford  CT     6161
4      Denver    CO    80294
5      Lowry     CO    80230
6     Charlotte  FL    33949

Merging Data Frames

We can merge two data frames by using the merge() function. The data frames must have same column names on which the merging happens.

In the example below, we consider the data sets about Diabetes in Pima Indian Women available in the library names "MASS". we merge the two data sets based on the values of blood pressure("bp") and body mass index("bmi"). On choosing these two columns for merging, the records where values of these two variables match in both data sets are combined together to form a single data frame.

library(MASS)
merged.Pima <- merge(x = Pima.te, y = Pima.tr,
   by.x = c("bp", "bmi"),
   by.y = c("bp", "bmi")
)
print(merged.Pima)
nrow(merged.Pima)

When we execute the above code, it produces the following result −

   bp  bmi npreg.x glu.x skin.x ped.x age.x type.x npreg.y glu.y skin.y ped.y
1  60 33.8       1   117     23 0.466    27     No       2   125     20 0.088
2  64 29.7       2    75     24 0.370    33     No       2   100     23 0.368
3  64 31.2       5   189     33 0.583    29    Yes       3   158     13 0.295
4  64 33.2       4   117     27 0.230    24     No       1    96     27 0.289
5  66 38.1       3   115     39 0.150    28     No       1   114     36 0.289
6  68 38.5       2   100     25 0.324    26     No       7   129     49 0.439
7  70 27.4       1   116     28 0.204    21     No       0   124     20 0.254
8  70 33.1       4    91     32 0.446    22     No       9   123     44 0.374
9  70 35.4       9   124     33 0.282    34     No       6   134     23 0.542
10 72 25.6       1   157     21 0.123    24     No       4    99     17 0.294
11 72 37.7       5    95     33 0.370    27     No       6   103     32 0.324
12 74 25.9       9   134     33 0.460    81     No       8   126     38 0.162
13 74 25.9       1    95     21 0.673    36     No       8   126     38 0.162
14 78 27.6       5    88     30 0.258    37     No       6   125     31 0.565
15 78 27.6      10   122     31 0.512    45     No       6   125     31 0.565
16 78 39.4       2   112     50 0.175    24     No       4   112     40 0.236
17 88 34.5       1   117     24 0.403    40    Yes       4   127     11 0.598
   age.y type.y
1     31     No
2     21     No
3     24     No
4     21     No
5     21     No
6     43    Yes
7     36    Yes
8     40     No
9     29    Yes
10    28     No
11    55     No
12    39     No
13    39     No
14    49    Yes
15    49    Yes
16    38     No
17    28     No
[1] 17

Melting and Casting

One of the most interesting aspects of R programming is about changing the shape of the data in multiple steps to get a desired shape. The functions used to do this are called melt() and cast().

We consider the dataset called ships present in the library called "MASS".

library(MASS)
print(ships)

When we execute the above code, it produces the following result −

     type year   period   service   incidents
1     A   60     60        127         0
2     A   60     75         63         0
3     A   65     60       1095         3
4     A   65     75       1095         4
5     A   70     60       1512         6
.............
.............
8     A   75     75       2244         11
9     B   60     60      44882         39
10    B   60     75      17176         29
11    B   65     60      28609         58
............
............
17    C   60     60      1179          1
18    C   60     75       552          1
19    C   65     60       781          0
............
............

Melt the Data

Now we melt the data to organize it, converting all columns other than type and year into multiple rows.

molten.ships <- melt(ships, id = c("type","year"))
print(molten.ships)

When we execute the above code, it produces the following result −

      type year  variable  value
1      A   60    period      60
2      A   60    period      75
3      A   65    period      60
4      A   65    period      75
............
............
9      B   60    period      60
10     B   60    period      75
11     B   65    period      60
12     B   65    period      75
13     B   70    period      60
...........
...........
41     A   60    service    127
42     A   60    service     63
43     A   65    service   1095
...........
...........
70     D   70    service   1208
71     D   75    service      0
72     D   75    service   2051
73     E   60    service     45
74     E   60    service      0
75     E   65    service    789
...........
...........
101    C   70    incidents    6
102    C   70    incidents    2
103    C   75    incidents    0
104    C   75    incidents    1
105    D   60    incidents    0
106    D   60    incidents    0
...........
...........

Cast the Molten Data

We can cast the molten data into a new form where the aggregate of each type of ship for each year is created. It is done using the cast() function.

recasted.ship <- cast(molten.ships, type+year~variable,sum)
print(recasted.ship)

When we execute the above code, it produces the following result −

     type year  period  service  incidents
1     A   60    135       190      0
2     A   65    135      2190      7
3     A   70    135      4865     24
4     A   75    135      2244     11
5     B   60    135     62058     68
6     B   65    135     48979    111
7     B   70    135     20163     56
8     B   75    135      7117     18
9     C   60    135      1731      2
10    C   65    135      1457      1
11    C   70    135      2731      8
12    C   75    135       274      1
13    D   60    135       356      0
14    D   65    135       480      0
15    D   70    135      1557     13
16    D   75    135      2051      4
17    E   60    135        45      0
18    E   65    135      1226     14
19    E   70    135      3318     17
20    E   75    135       542      1