Finding the maximum value for each row among 3 columns in R

Question

I need to calculate the maximum value for each row among 3 columns.

A table could be:

x = c(1,2,3,4,5 ) 
y = c(2,3,3,1,1 ) 
z = c(4,3,2,1,1 ) 
df<-data.frame(x,y,z)

I need to get:

    x   y   z   max
1   1   2   4   4
2   2   3   3   3
3   3   3   2   3
4   4   1   1   4
5   5   1   1   5

I tried:

df$max<-max(x, y,z)

But I get:

  x y z max
1 1 2 4   5
2 2 3 3   5
3 3 3 2   5
4 4 1 1   5
5 5 1 1   5

So, how can I do this correctly?

Answer 1

Use data.table :)

library(data.table)
x = c(1,2,3,4,5 ) 
y = c(2,3,3,1,1 ) 
z = c(4,3,2,1,1 ) 
dt<-data.table(x,y,z)
dt[, max:=pmax(x,y,z)]
dt

Answer 2

You can use the apply function for this like so:

df$max<-apply(X=df, MARGIN=1, FUN=max)

The MARGIN=1 argument indicated that for every row in X you wish to apply the function in FUN. If you use MARGIN=2 it will be by column or MARGIN=c(1,2) it will be both rows and columns.