Renaming multiple columns with indices in R

Question

I scraped this data from a json file which feeded an interactive graphic.

df <- structure(list(x = c(\"Iraq\", \"Syria\"), Aug. = c(\"120\", \"12         


        

Answer 1

These steps can help you:

colname <- names(df)

colname[2:6] <- paste(colname[2:6], "2014")
colname[7:18] <- paste(colname[7:18], "2015")
colname[19:30] <- paste(colname[19:30], "2016")

#Now set the column name in data frame
colnames(df) <- colname


# Column names after modification
#>names(df)
# [1] "x"           "Aug. 2014"   "Sept. 2014"  "Oct. 2014"   "Nov. 2014"   #"Dec. 2014"   "Jan. 2015"   "Feb. 2015"   "March 2015"  "Apr. 2015"  
#[11] "May 2015"    "June 2015"   "July 2015"   "Aug. 2015"   "Sept. 2015"  #"Oct. 2015"   "Nov. 2015"   "Dec. 2015"   "Jan. 2016"   "Feb 2016"   
#[21] "March  2016" "April 2016"  "May 2016"    "June 2016"   "July 2016"   "Aug #2016"    "Sept 2016"   "Oct  2016"   "Nov 2016"    "Dec 2016"   
#[31] "Jan "        "Feb "        "Mar"         "April "      "May"         #"June"        "July "       "Aug "        "Sept "       "Oct "       
#[41] "Nov "        "Dec"         "Jan 4th"  

Answer 2

To change the column names of a data frame, you can do this:

# Example data frame
x <- as.data.frame(
    matrix(letters[1:10], nrow = 2)
    );

# Change names of columns 2-5
colnames(x)[2:5] <- paste0(colnames(x)[2:5], 1:4);
# Change all column names
colnames(x) <- paste0(colnames(x), 1:5);

Answer 3

It may also save you a headache later if you use more standardize column names (e.g. Feb vs. Feb.). I used lubridate here to sequence through the dates.

require(lubridate)
colnames(df)[-1] <- paste(months(seq(ymd('2014-08-01'),ymd('2018-01-01'), by = 'months'), abbreviate = T), 
                          year(seq(ymd('2014-08-01'),ymd('2018-01-01'), by = 'months')))