Split a dataframe column in multiple columns based on multiple occurrences of a separator in R

Question

My data looks like

a  
a >> b  
d >> c >> e

(unknown times ">>") can be present in a row
And I need them in several columns depending on occurrences of ">>"
I tried strsplit, which converts the column in a list and when I tried to unlist it, it repeats the values like

X1 X2 X3   
a  a  a  
a  b  a  
d  c  e

Is there any Base R solution to get

X1 X2 X3  
a  
a  b  
d  c  e

And so on? I can only use Base R!!

Please share your sample input with dput so we can see the structure we're working with. dput(your_sample). — Gregor Thomas
– Gregor Thomas, Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 16:04
@Pushkar, if the answer below solves your problem do consider accepting it or voting on it. If it doesn't, consider clarifying what is still unresolved. Thanks. — A5C1D2H2I1M1N2O1R2T1
– A5C1D2H2I1M1N2O1R2T1, Commented Feb 17, 2021 at 22:29

Gregor Thomas · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-17 17:09:08Z

1

Assuming your input is a character vector as below, try this:

x = c("a"  ,
"a >> b"  ,
"d >> c >> e")


s = lapply(strsplit(x, split = ">>"), trimws)
s = t(sapply(s, function(x) {length(x) <- max(lengths(s)); x}))
s
#      [,1] [,2] [,3]
# [1,] "a"  NA   NA  
# [2,] "a"  "b"  NA  
# [3,] "d"  "c"  "e"

edited Feb 17, 2021 at 17:09

answered Feb 17, 2021 at 16:08

Gregor Thomas

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5 Comments

Pushkar Over a year ago

Thank you very much!

A5C1D2H2I1M1N2O1R2T1 Over a year ago

Congrats on passing 100k! Have you gotten your swag yet? I wonder whether there's any advantage to t(s/v-apply) since the desired output is a matrix anyway.

Gregor Thomas Over a year ago

@A5C1D2H2I1M1N2O1R2T1 Thanks! No, nothing yet - I did get a congratulatory email but no mention of swag. I wonder if the threshold was raised.

Gregor Thomas Over a year ago

Good call on the t(sapply()) - saves a step.

A5C1D2H2I1M1N2O1R2T1 Over a year ago

@GregorThomas, strange. There was a post somewhat recently in Meta SE that swag is back.

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