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How to order rows in data frame for maximun net values in some columns in r

I have this dataframe

a <- c("5", 7, 9, "11")
b <- c("-8", "-10", -3, -1)
c <- c(-4, -1, "-6", "3")
df <- data.frame(a,b,c)

    a        b       c
1   5       -8      -4
2   7       -10     -1
3   9       -3      -6
4   11      -1       3

then I want the rows be ordered for the maximum net value in them, independently of the columns. I mean, I expect something like this:

    a        b       c
4   11      -1       3
2   7       -10     -1
3   9       -3      -6
1   5       -8      -4

as you can see it was sorted because the first row has the value of 11, the second (-10), the third (9), the fourth (-8).

Solution

  • You can get rowwise maximum of absolute values and order it.

    df[order(-do.call(pmax, abs(df))), ]

#   a   b  c
#4 11  -1  3
#2  7 -10 -1
#3  9  -3 -6
#1  5  -8 -4