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rdplyrdata-manipulationplyr

R function to add multiple new columns based on values from a group of columns

I am trying to figure out a clean way to add multiple new columns corresponding to multiple existing columns all at once in R. I want each new column cell to be a 0 if the corresponding cell in the corresponding column is an NA value, or a 1 if the corresponding cell has any other value (see example tables below).

I have been able to accomplish this by creating the new columns first, then with a messy which function and a loop. I was wondering if there was a clean way to do this and add in all the new columns with values at once.

Start data

A B
5 NA
NA 4

After function is applied

A B A New B New
5 NA 1 0
NA 4 0 1
Solution

  • In base R,

    df[paste0(names(df), 'new')] <- +(!is.na(df))
df

#   A  B Anew Bnew
#1  5 NA    1    0
#2 NA  4    0    1

    !is.na(df) gives you logical values (TRUE for non-NA values and FALSE for NA values). Adding + at the beginning changes the logical values to integer values (TRUE = 1, FALSE = 0).