How to combine multiple character columns into a single column in an R data frame

Question

I am working with Census data and I need to combine four character columns into a single column.

Example:

LOGRECNO STATE COUNTY  TRACT BLOCK     60    01    001  021100  1053     61    01    001  021100  1054     62    01    001  021100  1055     63    01    001  021100  1056     64    01    001  021100  1057     65    01    001  021100  1058 

I want to create a new column that adds the strings of STATE, COUNTY, TRACT, and BLOCK together into a single string. Example:

LOGRECNO STATE COUNTY  TRACT BLOCK  BLOCKID     60    01    001  021100  1053   01001021101053     61    01    001  021100  1054   01001021101054     62    01    001  021100  1055   01001021101055     63    01    001  021100  1056   01001021101056     64    01    001  021100  1057   01001021101057     65    01    001  021100  1058   01001021101058 

I've tried:

AL_Blocks$BLOCK_ID<- paste(c(AL_Blocks$STATE, AL_Blocks$County, AL_Blocks$TRACT,    AL_Blocks$BLOCK), collapse = "") 

But this combines all rows of all four columns into a single string.

Answer 1

Try this:

AL_Blocks$BLOCK_ID<- with(AL_Blocks, paste0(STATE, COUNTY, TRACT, BLOCK)) 

there was a typo in County... it should've been COUNTY. Also, you don't need the collapse parameter.

I hope that helps.