How to split a data frame into multiple dataframes with each two columns as a new dataframe?

Question

I\'ve the below dataframe with 10 columns.

V1  V2  V3  V4  V5  V6  V7  V8  V9  V10
1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8   9   10
11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19         


        

Answer 1

We can use seq to create the index of alternating columns, loop along and then subset the dataset

lst1 <- lapply(seq(1, ncol(df1), by=2), function(i) 
                   df1[i: pmin((i+1), ncol(df1))])

Or use split

 lst2 <- lapply(split(seq_along(df1),as.numeric(gl(ncol(df1), 
           2, ncol(df1)))), function(i) df1[i])

If we need 5 individual datasets in the global environment, use list2env (not recommended though)

list2env(setNames(lst1, paste0("newdf", seq_along(lst1))),
           envir=.GlobalEnv)

data

df1 <- structure(list(V1 = c(1L, 11L, 21L, 31L, 41L, 51L, 61L, 71L, 
81L, 91L), V2 = c(2L, 12L, 22L, 32L, 42L, 52L, 62L, 72L, 82L, 
92L), V3 = c(3L, 13L, 23L, 33L, 43L, 53L, 63L, 73L, 83L, 93L), 
    V4 = c(4L, 14L, 24L, 34L, 44L, 54L, 64L, 74L, 84L, 94L), 
    V5 = c(5L, 15L, 25L, 35L, 45L, 55L, 65L, 75L, 85L, 95L), 
    V6 = c(6L, 16L, 26L, 36L, 46L, 56L, 66L, 76L, 86L, 96L), 
    V7 = c(7L, 17L, 27L, 37L, 47L, 57L, 67L, 77L, 87L, 97L), 
    V8 = c(8L, 18L, 28L, 38L, 48L, 58L, 68L, 78L, 88L, 98L), 
    V9 = c(9L, 19L, 29L, 39L, 49L, 59L, 69L, 79L, 89L, 99L), 
    V10 = c(10L, 20L, 30L, 40L, 50L, 60L, 70L, 80L, 90L, 100L
    )), .Names = c("V1", "V2", "V3", "V4", "V5", "V6", "V7", 
"V8", "V9", "V10"), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -10L
))

Answer 2

Try tapply with an INDEX argument of 1, 1, 2, 2, etc.

tapply(as.list(DF), gl(ncol(DF)/2, 2), as.data.frame)

giving (continued below output):

$`1`
   V1 V2
1   1  2
2  11 12
3  21 22
4  31 32
5  41 42
6  51 52
7  61 62
8  71 72
9  81 82
10 91 92

$`2`
   V3 V4
1   3  4
2  13 14
3  23 24
4  33 34
5  43 44
6  53 54
7  63 64
8  73 74
9  83 84
10 93 94

$`3`
   V5 V6
1   5  6
2  15 16
3  25 26
4  35 36
5  45 46
6  55 56
7  65 66
8  75 76
9  85 86
10 95 96

$`4`
   V7 V8
1   7  8
2  17 18
3  27 28
4  37 38
5  47 48
6  57 58
7  67 68
8  77 78
9  87 88
10 97 98

Another possibility if there is an all numeric data frame as in the question is to reshape it into an array:

a <- array(unlist(DF), c(nrow(DF), 2, ncol(DF)/2))

in which case a[,,i] is the ith matrix for i = 1, ..., ncol(DF)/2 .

Note: The input DF in reproducible form is:

DF <- as.data.frame(matrix(1:100, 10, byrow = TRUE))