Group by multiple columns in dplyr, using string vector input

Question

Just so as to write the code in full, here's an update on Hadley's answer with the new syntax:

library(dplyr)

df <-  data.frame(
    asihckhdoydk = sample(LETTERS[1:3], 100, replace=TRUE),
    a30mvxigxkgh = sample(LETTERS[1:3], 100, replace=TRUE),
    value = rnorm(100)
)

# Columns you want to group by
grp_cols <- names(df)[-3]

# Convert character vector to list of symbols
dots <- lapply(grp_cols, as.symbol)

# Perform frequency counts
df %>%
    group_by_(.dots=dots) %>%
    summarise(n = n())

output:

Source: local data frame [9 x 3]
Groups: asihckhdoydk

  asihckhdoydk a30mvxigxkgh  n
1            A            A 10
2            A            B 10
3            A            C 13
4            B            A 14
5            B            B 10
6            B            C 12
7            C            A  9
8            C            B 12
9            C            C 10

Since this question was posted, dplyr added scoped versions of group_by (documentation here). This lets you use the same functions you would use with select, like so:

data = data.frame(
    asihckhdoydkhxiydfgfTgdsx = sample(LETTERS[1:3], 100, replace=TRUE),
    a30mvxigxkghc5cdsvxvyv0ja = sample(LETTERS[1:3], 100, replace=TRUE),
    value = rnorm(100)
)

# get the columns we want to average within
columns = names(data)[-3]

library(dplyr)
df1 <- data %>%
  group_by_at(vars(one_of(columns))) %>%
  summarize(Value = mean(value))

#compare plyr for reference
df2 <- plyr::ddply(data, columns, plyr::summarize, value=mean(value))
table(df1 == df2, useNA = 'ifany')
## TRUE 
##  27 

The output from your example question is as expected (see comparison to plyr above and output below):

# A tibble: 9 x 3
# Groups:   asihckhdoydkhxiydfgfTgdsx [?]
  asihckhdoydkhxiydfgfTgdsx a30mvxigxkghc5cdsvxvyv0ja       Value
                     <fctr>                    <fctr>       <dbl>
1                         A                         A  0.04095002
2                         A                         B  0.24943935
3                         A                         C -0.25783892
4                         B                         A  0.15161805
5                         B                         B  0.27189974
6                         B                         C  0.20858897
7                         C                         A  0.19502221
8                         C                         B  0.56837548
9                         C                         C -0.22682998

Note that since dplyr::summarize only strips off one layer of grouping at a time, you've still got some grouping going on in the resultant tibble (which can sometime catch people by suprise later down the line). If you want to be absolutely safe from unexpected grouping behavior, you can always add %>% ungroup to your pipeline after you summarize.

The support for this in dplyr is currently pretty weak, eventually I think the syntax will be something like:

df %.% group_by(.groups = c("asdfgfTgdsx", "asdfk30v0ja"))

But that probably won't be there for a while (because I need to think through all the consequences).

In the meantime, you can use regroup(), which takes a list of symbols:

library(dplyr)

df <-  data.frame(
  asihckhdoydk = sample(LETTERS[1:3], 100, replace=TRUE),
  a30mvxigxkgh = sample(LETTERS[1:3], 100, replace=TRUE),
  value = rnorm(100)
)

df %.%
  regroup(list(quote(asihckhdoydk), quote(a30mvxigxkgh))) %.%
  summarise(n = n())

If you have have a character vector of column names, you can convert them to the right structure with lapply() and as.symbol():

vars <- setdiff(names(df), "value")
vars2 <- lapply(vars, as.symbol)

df %.% regroup(vars2) %.% summarise(n = n())

String specification of columns in dplyr are now supported through variants of the dplyr functions with names finishing in an underscore. For example, corresponding to the group_by function there is a group_by_ function that may take string arguments. This vignette describes the syntax of these functions in detail.

The following snippet cleanly solves the problem that @sharoz originally posed (note the need to write out the .dots argument):

# Given data and columns from the OP

data %>%
    group_by_(.dots = columns) %>%
    summarise(Value = mean(value))

(Note that dplyr now uses the %>% operator, and %.% is deprecated).

Until dplyr has full support for string arguments, perhaps this gist is useful:

https://gist.github.com/skranz/9681509

It contains bunch of wrapper functions like s_group_by, s_mutate, s_filter, etc that use string arguments. You can mix them with the normal dplyr functions. For example

cols = c("cyl","gear")
mtcars %.%
  s_group_by(cols) %.%  
  s_summarise("avdisp=mean(disp), max(disp)") %.%
  arrange(avdisp)