how can i tell select() in dplyr that the string it is seeing is a column name in a data frame

Question

I tried searching but didn\'t find an answer to this question.

I\'m trying to use the select statement in dplyr but am having problems when I try to send it strings

Answer 1

Select seems to work with the column indexes (dplyr 0.2), so just match your desired names to their index and use them to select the columns.

myCols <- c("mpg","disp")
colNums <- match(myCols,names(mtcars))
mtcars %>% select(colNums)