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r transform dataset from wide to long for column names with patterns


Let us assume a dataset like this below.

 ID   Gender  ColA_1  ColB_1 ColC_1__1 ColC_1__2 ColA_2  ColB_2 ColC_2__1 ColC_2__2 
 1    Male    No      Yes    Yes       No        No      Yes    No        No
 2    Female  Yes     No     Yes       No        No      Yes    Yes       No

What I like to do is transform this dataset like this below

 ID Index  Gender  ColA  ColB   ColC_1 ColC_2  
 1  1      Male    No    Yes    Yes       No        
 1  2      Male    No    Yes    No        No
 2  1    Female    Yes   No     Yes       No        
 2  2    Female    No    Yes    Yes       No  

Not sure how to do this, need help. Thanks in advance.


Solution

  • Here is an option with pivot_longer

    library(dplyr)
    library(tidyr)
    library(stringr)
    df1 %>% 
         rename_at(vars(starts_with('ColC')), ~ str_replace(., "_(\\d+)__(\\d+)",
                  "\\2_\\1")) %>%
         pivot_longer(cols = 3:ncol(.),  names_to = c(".value", "Index"), 
                     names_sep="_")
    # A tibble: 4 x 7
    #     ID Gender Index ColA  ColB  ColC1 ColC2
    #  <int> <chr>  <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
    #1     1 Male   1     No    Yes   Yes   No   
    #2     1 Male   2     No    Yes   No    No   
    #3     2 Female 1     Yes   No    Yes   No   
    #4     2 Female 2     No    Yes   Yes   No   
    

    data

    df1 <- structure(list(ID = 1:2, Gender = c("Male", "Female"), ColA_1 = c("No", 
    "Yes"), ColB_1 = c("Yes", "No"), ColC_1__1 = c("Yes", "Yes"), 
        ColC_1__2 = c("No", "No"), ColA_2 = c("No", "No"), ColB_2 = c("Yes", 
        "Yes"), ColC_2__1 = c("No", "Yes"), ColC_2__2 = c("No", "No"
        )), class = "data.frame", row.names = c(NA, -2L))