Search code examples
rmaxmin

min for each row in a data frame

I'm try to calculate minimum across multiple columns (row-wise min) in a data frame, but the min function automatically returns the minimum across the whole of each column rather than for each row separately. I'm sure I'm missing something really simple here? Any ideas much appreciated.

x <- c(1,2,7)
y <- c(1,5,4)
minIwant <- c(1,2,4)
df <- data.frame(x, y, minIwant)
df$minIget <- min(df$x,df$y)
df
  x y minIwant minIget
1 1 1        1       1
2 2 5        2       1
3 7 4        4       1
Solution

  • You can use apply to go through each row

    apply(df, 1, FUN = min)

    Where 1 means to apply FUN to each row of df, 2 would mean to apply FUN to columns.

    To remove missing values, use:

    apply(df, 1, FUN = min, na.rm = TRUE)