Suppose, I have a dataframe, df, and I want to create a new column called "c" based on the addition of two existing columns, "a" and "b". I would simply run the following code:
df$c <- df$a + df$b
But I also want to do this for many other columns. So why won't my code below work?
# Reproducible data:
martial_arts <- data.frame(gym_branch=c("downtown_a", "downtown_b", "uptown", "island"),
day_boxing=c(5,30,25,10),day_muaythai=c(34,18,20,30),
day_bjj=c(0,0,0,0),day_judo=c(10,0,5,0),
evening_boxing=c(50,45,32,40), evening_muaythai=c(50,50,45,50),
evening_bjj=c(60,60,55,40), evening_judo=c(25,15,30,0))
# Creating a list of the new column names of the columns that need to be added to the martial_arts dataframe:
pattern<-c("_boxing","_muaythai","_bjj","_judo")
d<- expand.grid(paste0("martial_arts$total",pattern))
# Creating lists of the columns that will be added to each other:
e<- names(martial_arts %>% select(day_boxing:day_judo))
f<- names(martial_arts %>% select(evening_boxing:evening_judo))
# Writing a function and using mapply:
kick_him <- function(d,e,f){d <- rowSums(martial_arts[ , c(e, f)], na.rm=T)}
mapply(kick_him,d,e,f)
Now, mapply produces the correct results in terms of the addition:
> mapply(ff,d,e,f)
Var1 <NA> <NA> <NA>
[1,] 55 84 60 35
[2,] 75 68 60 15
[3,] 57 65 55 35
[4,] 50 80 40 0
But it doesn't add the new columns to the martial_arts dataframe. The function in theory should do the following
martial_arts$total_boxing <- martial_arts$day_boxing + martial_arts$evening_boxing
...
...
martial_arts$total_judo <- martial_arts$day_judo + martial_arts$evening_judo
and add four new total columns to martial_arts.
So what am I doing wrong?
The assignment is wrong here i.e. instead of having martial_arts$total_boxing as a string, it should be "total_boxing" alone and this should be on the lhs of the Map/mapply. As the OP already created the 'martial_arts$' in 'd' dataset as a column, we are removing the prefix part and do the assignment
kick_him <- function(e,f){rowSums(martial_arts[ , c(e, f)], na.rm=TRUE)}
martial_arts[sub(".*\\$", "", d$Var1)] <- Map(kick_him, e, f)
-check the dataset now
> martial_arts
gym_branch day_boxing day_muaythai day_bjj day_judo evening_boxing evening_muaythai evening_bjj evening_judo total_boxing total_muaythai total_bjj total_judo
1 downtown_a 5 34 0 10 50 50 60 25 55 84 60 35
2 downtown_b 30 18 0 0 45 50 60 15 75 68 60 15
3 uptown 25 20 0 5 32 45 55 30 57 65 55 35
4 island 10 30 0 0 40 50 40 0 50 80 40 0