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One can rename a field:
mtcars %>% rename(bla = mpg)
But if the field doesn't exist, an error:
mtcars %>% rename(MPG = mpg, CYL = cyl, bla = uyhgfrtgf)
Error: Can't rename columns that don't exist.
x Column `uyhgfrtgf` doesn't exist
I looked at ?rename_if and it says this is now superseded by rename_with().
What's the 'right' way to attempt to rename fields but with a possibility they don't exist (e.g. in this case a ShinyApp with filter selectors).
904
There may be occasions in which you want to change some of the variable names in your SAS data set. To do so, you'll want to use the RENAME= option. As its name suggests, the RENAME= option allows you to change the variable names within a SAS data set. RENAME = (old1=new1 old2=new2 ....
The RENAME statement enables you to change the names of one or more variables, variables in a list, or a combination of variables and variable lists. The new variable names are written to the output data set only. Use the old variable names in programming statements for the current DATA step.
To change multiple column names by name and by index use rename() function of the dplyr package and to rename by just name use setnames() from data. table . From R base functionality, we have colnames() and names() functions that can be used to rename a data frame column by a single index or name.
rename() function from dplyr takes a syntax rename(new_column_name = old_column_name) to change the column from old to a new name. The following example renames the column from id to c1 . The operator – %>% is used to load the renamed column names to the data frame.
Use any_of() with a named vector. any_of() doesn't error if a variable isn't found.
library(dplyr)
lookup <- c(MPG = "mpg", CYL = "cyl", bla = "uyhgfrtgf")
mtcars %>%
rename(any_of(lookup))
MPG CYL disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
Mazda RX4 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 6 160 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
Datsun 710 22.8 4 108 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1
...
I'm pretty sure you can do this with NSE but I can't handle this (yet?).
So you could define a lookup variable first:
lookup <- c("mpg" = "MPG", "cyl" = "CYL", "uyhgfrtgf" = "bla")
Attention: it's the other way round as in your rename function.
Now you could use
library(dplyr)
df %>%
rename_with(.fn = ~lookup[.x], .cols = intersect(names(.), names(lookup)))
which returns
MPG CYL disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
Mazda RX4 21.0 6 160.0 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 6 160.0 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
Datsun 710 22.8 4 108.0 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1
Hornet 4 Drive 21.4 6 258.0 110 3.08 3.215 19.44 1 0 3 1
Hornet Sportabout 18.7 8 360.0 175 3.15 3.440 17.02 0 0 3 2
Valiant 18.1 6 225.0 105 2.76 3.460 20.22 1 0 3 1
Duster 360 14.3 8 360.0 245 3.21 3.570 15.84 0 0 3 4
Merc 240D 24.4 4 146.7 62 3.69 3.190 20.00 1 0 4 2
We may use
library(dplyr)
lookup <-c("MPG" = "mpg", "CYL" = "cyl", "bla" = "uyhgfrtgf")
mtcars %>%
rename(!!! lookup[names(.) %in% lookup])
MPG CYL disp hp drat wt qsec vs am gear carb
Mazda RX4 21.0 6 160.0 110 3.90 2.620 16.46 0 1 4 4
Mazda RX4 Wag 21.0 6 160.0 110 3.90 2.875 17.02 0 1 4 4
Datsun 710 22.8 4 108.0 93 3.85 2.320 18.61 1 1 4 1
Hornet 4 Drive 21.4 6 258.0 110 3.08 3.215 19.44 1 0 3 1
Hornet Sportabout 18.7 8 360.0 175 3.15 3.440 17.02 0 0 3 2
Valiant 18.1 6 225.0 105 2.76 3.460 20.22 1 0 3 1
Duster 360 14.3 8 360.0 245 3.21 3.570 15.84 0 0 3 4
Merc 240D 24.4 4 146.7 62 3.69 3.190 20.00 1 0 4 2
Merc 230 22.8 4 140.8 95 3.92 3.150 22.90 1 0 4 2
Merc 280 19.2 6 167.6 123 3.92 3.440 18.30 1 0 4 4
...
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