How to split a number into digits in R

Question

I have a data frame with a numerical ID variable which identify the Primary, Secondary and Ultimate Sampling Units from a multistage sampling scheme. I want to split the origina

Answer 1

If you don't want to convert to character for some reason, following is one of the way to achieve what you want

DF <- data.frame(ID = c(501901, 501902), var1 = c("a", "b"), var2 = c("c", "d"))

result <- t(sapply(DF$ID, function(y) {
    c(y%/%1e+05, (y - y%/%1e+05 * 1e+05)%/%1000, y - y%/%1000 * 1000)
}))


DF <- cbind(result, DF[, -1])

names(DF)[1:3] <- c("ID1", "ID2", "ID3")

DF
##   ID1 ID2 ID3 var1 var2
## 1   5   1 901    a    c
## 2   5   1 902    b    d