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Concatenate Multiple Variables With Padding

Source: R/strings.R
concat.Rd

Concatenate multiple variables inside a data frame into a new variable. An automatic or individual padding can be applied. The padding character can be chosen freely.

The function can also be used to give a single variable a padding.

Usage

concat(
  data_frame,
  ...,
  padding_char = NULL,
  padding_length = NULL,
  padding_right = FALSE
)

Arguments

data_frame

A data frame which contains the the variables to concatenate.

...

The names of the variables to concatenate.

padding_char

A single character which will be used to fill up the empty places.

padding_length

A numeric vector containing the individual padding length per variable.

padding_right

FALSE by default. If TRUE insert padding characters on the right side instead of the left side.

Value

Returns a character vector.

See also

Other character manipulating functions: sub_string(), remove_blanks()

Examples

# Example data frame
my_data <- dummy_data(100)

# Concatenate variables as provided
my_data[["id1"]] <- my_data |> concat(household_id, state, age)

# Concatenate variables with leading zeros. Each variable will
# receive an individual padding length according to their
# longest value.
my_data[["id2"]] <- my_data |> concat(household_id, state, age,
                                      padding_char = "0")

# Concatenate variables with individual character and lengths.
my_data[["id2"]] <- my_data |> concat(household_id, state, age,
                                      padding_char   = "_",
                                      padding_length = c(5, 3, 4))

# Padding a single variable in place
my_data[["state"]] <- my_data |> concat(state, padding_char = "0")