Select columns based on exact string match

Question

I have a large dataframe which contain columns like this:

df <- data.frame(W0 = 1,
                 Response = 1,
                 HighResponse = 1,
                 Response.W0 = 1,
                 HighResponse.W0 =1)

Now, in a for loop, I want to select a column based on whether they contain a specified string- Response, W0, HighResponse. My method of selecting the column is:

x <- dplyr::select(df, contains("HighResponse.W0"))  #this works
x <- dplyr::select(df, contains("HighResponse"))  #doesn't work. Selects HighResponse and HighResponse.W0
x <- dplyr::select(df, contains("Response")) #doesn't work. Selects Response, HighResponse, Response.W0, HighResponse.W0
x <- dplyr::select(df, contains("W0"))  #doesn't work. Selects W0, Response.W0, HighResponse.W0

How can I modify my column selection method, so that it only selects exact string? For ex, select only W0 or Response not the other matching strings.

You stated you are using these in a loop. Unless you are doing simulations where the current data points depend on the previous, you should learn to only use functions from the tidyverse package, eg-groupby, map, etc. Those will make your work neat and easily readable, and of course pipable — Onyambu
– Onyambu, Commented Nov 2, 2022 at 16:45
seems you are doing the same analysis over and over. You can use map — Onyambu
– Onyambu, Commented Nov 2, 2022 at 17:05

Maël · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-02 16:39:20Z

3

Use anchors with matches to specify the beginning (^) and end ($) of the string:

dplyr::select(df, matches("^HighResponse$"))

Or, without contains:

dplyr::select(df, "HighResponse")

answered Nov 2, 2022 at 16:39

Maël

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