Avoiding error when using rename in dplyr and column doesn't exist

Question

Is there a clever way to use the rename function in dplyr when in some instances the column to be renamed doesn\'t exist?

For example, I would like the following not to

Answer 1

The plyr package has a rename() function with a warn_missing parameter.

plyr::rename(
  mtcars, 
  replace      = c(mpg="miles_per_gallon", foo="missing_varible"),
  warn_missing = FALSE
)

If you use it, consider using requireNamespace() instead of library(), so its function names don't collide with dplyr's.