how to concatenate vectors of strings in a dataframe

Question

I was wondering if anyone could help me concencate two vectors of strings:

For example: hello and hi, that repeat 130 times in a dataframe.

When in the dataframe column I would like for the order to be hello, (130 times) followed by hi (also 130 times), then hello (130 more times), then hi (130 times) again. So they should appear 4 times total (2 times each in order)

This is what I tried so far but it does not seem to work

hello <- c(rep( "hello", 130))
hi<- c(rep( "hi", 130)) 
style <- c(hello, hi, hello, hi)

Does this answer your question? Paste multiple columns together — shadowtalker
– shadowtalker, Commented Nov 27, 2022 at 4:11
Here are a couple of options: style <- data.frame(greeting=paste(hello, hi, hello, hi)) or style <- data.frame(greeting=rep("hello hi hello high", 130)). — dcarlson
– dcarlson, Commented Nov 27, 2022 at 5:19

shadowtalker · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-27 04:13:43Z

2

The general solution to string concatenation in R is the paste function. In this case, you just paste the same vectors multiple times:

hello <- rep("hello", 130)
hi <- rep("hi", 130)
result <- paste(hello, hi, hello, hi)
print(result)

There are other ways to handle this as well, e.g. using sprintf. I suggest consulting ?paste for details on usage.

answered Nov 27, 2022 at 4:13

shadowtalker

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3 Comments

Sara n Over a year ago

Thank you so so much for your help! I will look up paste right away. However, I think I may have been confusing in my post because I wanted hello to appear 130 times, then hi, and then hello and so on. When I typed in what you just provided, I got hello followed by hi 130 times. Would you know how I would be able to get first hello 130 times and then hi 130 times? Again thank you for your help

shadowtalker Over a year ago

@Saran use the c function to concatenate vectors. It's essential to give examples of desired inputs and outputs when asking questions, to prevent misunderstandings like this.

Isaiah Over a year ago

Welcome to SO Sara! :-) Shadowtalker's revised code is: hello <- rep("hello", 130) hi <- rep("hi", 130) result <- c(hello, hi, hello, hi) print(result)

TarJae · Accepted Answer · 2022-11-27 07:27:33Z

2

I think you need rep with each:

df <- data.frame(my_col = rep(rep(c("hello", "hi"), each=130),2))

answered Nov 27, 2022 at 7:27

TarJae

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