Naming multiple columns with the same name in sequence

Question

I have a summary of my data in the form of data frame

      V1 V3       V4     V5 V6       V7     V8 V9      V10    V11 V12      V13    V14
1   CCL5  P 0.000491 6546.2  P 0.000491 6546.2  P 0.000491 6546.2   P 0.000491 6546.2
2  EPHB3  P 0.000562  461.3  P 0.000562  461.3  P 0.000562  461.3   P 0.000562  461.3
3 GUCA1A  A 0.602006    9.4  A 0.602006    9.4  A 0.602006    9.4   A 0.602006    9.4
4  HSPA6  P 0.000322  564.0  P 0.000322  564.0  P 0.000322  564.0   P 0.000322  564.0
5 PTPN21  A 0.204022   94.3  A 0.204022   94.3  A 0.204022   94.3   A 0.204022   94.3
6   UBA7  P 0.000468  845.6  P 0.000468  845.6  P 0.000468  845.6   P 0.000468  845.6
7  7-Mar  P 0.000673  643.2  P 0.000673  643.2  P 0.000673  643.2   P 0.000673  643.2

I know very simple case of naming the columns by using something like

names(df)= c("Gene","Score","Call") ## df a data frame with three columns

But here the case is a bit different than simple case, where the first column is global which i want to assign name gene and after that for 2nd column call, for 3rd p-value, and forth intensity and repeat it till done.

The final output should look something like this

   Gene    call   p-value     intensity   call  p-value     intensity       call  p-value     intensity  call   p-value     intensity
1   CCL5     P    0.000491    6546.2       P    0.000491    546.2            P    0.000491    6546.2       P    .000491      6546.2
2   EPHB3    P    0.000562    461.3        P    0.000562    461.3            P    0.000562    461.3        P    0.000562     461.3
3  GUCA1A    A    0.602006    9.4          A    0.602006    9.4              A    0.602006    9.4          A    0.602006     9.4
4  HSPA6     P    0.000322    564.0        P    0.000322    564.0            P    0.000322    564.0        P    0.000322     564.0
5 PTPN21     A    0.204022    94.3         A    0.204022    94.3             A    0.204022    94.3         A    0.204022     94.3
6 UBA7       P    0.000468    845.6        P    0.000468    845.6            P    0.000468    845.6        P    0.000468     845.6 
7  7-Mar     P    0.000673    643.2        P    0.000673    643.2            P    0.000673    643.2        P    0.000673     643.2

Edited: Column number is not known

Mamoun Benghezal · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-16 08:22:45Z

3

you can try this

names(df) <- c("Gene", rep(c("call", "p-value", "intensity"), 4))
    Gene call  p-value intensity call  p-value intensity call  p-value intensity call  p-value intensity
1   CCL5    P 0.000491    6546.2    P 0.000491    6546.2    P 0.000491    6546.2    P 0.000491    6546.2
2  
...

answered Apr 16, 2015 at 8:22

Mamoun Benghezal

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4 Comments

Thilo Over a year ago

Note, however, that non-unique column names might result in problems later on. Thus, this is the correct answer, but I would not want to use the result.

jdharrison Over a year ago

Use rep with argument times = (ncol(df) - 1)%/%3 for unknown length

Agaz Wani Over a year ago

Shows this :

Error in names(df) <- c("Gene", rep(c("call", "p-value", "intensity"),  :    'names' attribute [13] must be the same length as the vector [4]

Agaz Wani Over a year ago

@jdharrison, as my column number is not known, would U please like to share the full line of code.

Agaz Wani · Accepted Answer · 2015-04-16 13:24:07Z

This also works as per comment posted @jdharrison

names(df) <- c("Gene", rep(c("call", "p-value", "intensity"), times = (ncol(df) - 1)%/%3))

    Gene call  p-value intensity call  p-value intensity call  p-value intensity call  p-value intensity
1   CCL5    P 0.000491    6546.2    P 0.000491    6546.2    P 0.000491    6546.2    P 0.000491    6546.2
2  EPHB3    P 0.000562     461.3    P 0.000562     461.3    P 0.000562     461.3    P 0.000562     461.3
3 GUCA1A    A 0.602006       9.4    A 0.602006       9.4    A 0.602006       9.4    A 0.602006       9.4
4  HSPA6    P 0.000322     564.0    P 0.000322     564.0    P 0.000322     564.0    P 0.000322     564.0
5 PTPN21    A 0.204022      94.3    A 0.204022      94.3    A 0.204022      94.3    A 0.204022      94.3
6   RFC2    P 0.000673     643.2    P 0.000673     643.2    P 0.000673     643.2    P 0.000673     643.2
7   UBA7    P 0.000468     845.6    P 0.000468     845.6    P 0.000468     845.6    P 0.000468     845.6

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