[R] use value in variable to be name of another variable

[David L Carlson]

It appears that you are just trying to use the first row to create a column name for the rest of the column. If that is all you are doing something like this is quicker, but it uses the data frame. 

> set.seed(42)
> tTargTFS <- data.frame(matrix(replicate(100, paste0(sample(LETTERS, 6), collapse="")), 10), stringsAsFactors=FALSE)
> New <- tTargTFS[ -1, ]
> colnames(New)
 [1] "X1"  "X2"  "X3"  "X4"  "X5"  "X6"  "X7"  "X8"  "X9"  "X10"
> colnames(New) <- tTargTFS[1, ]
> colnames(New)
 [1] "XZGTOK" "RYSNXD" "JKNXPI" "XVHFQP" "BOZEMK" "MLBHTV" "OQGWZM" "CMXSLB" "GOUDTJ"
[10] "SYMEXP"
> str(New)
'data.frame':   9 obs. of  10 variables:
 $ XZGTOK: chr  "TDPQKX" "YGLVWC" "MOVDXT" "CMJUXR" ...
 $ RYSNXD: chr  "HUQFAC" "FLEQAH" "NAZDHX" "UOFCBG" ...
 $ JKNXPI: chr  "XYFQTM" "QXUNSC" "TPDBKQ" "TUEVGD" ...
 $ XVHFQP: chr  "XTDGEQ" "DZBXLC" "TSVLYJ" "ELXYFV" ...
 $ BOZEMK: chr  "EDLVHY" "HNASCL" "OPRCGT" "NDUEXS" ...
 $ MLBHTV: chr  "KDHXCU" "MCFVGN" "XYKJDF" "OXITPV" ...
 $ OQGWZM: chr  "QXJGBW" "TCRWEY" "BUNKIF" "PUCWDB" ...
 $ CMXSLB: chr  "MIQLWV" "LCWAJE" "CMPVHR" "HLDSOB" ...
 $ GOUDTJ: chr  "XGCBVK" "VKLEQG" "EADZLR" "CWNDTF" ...
 $ SYMEXP: chr  "RFIHTE" "RDCXUF" "XTYEBA" "HIRFLP" ...


-------------------------------------
David L Carlson
Department of Anthropology
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77840-4352

-----Original Message-----
From: R-help [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On Behalf Of Matthew
Sent: Monday, July 11, 2016 5:34 PM
To: Rolf Turner
Cc: r-help at r-project.org
Subject: Re: [R] use value in variable to be name of another variable

Hi Rolf,

     Thanks for the warning. I think because my initial efforts used the 
assign function, that Jim provided his solution using it.

     Any suggestions for how it could be done without assign() ?

Matthew

On 7/11/2016 6:31 PM, Rolf Turner wrote:
> On 12/07/16 10:13, Matthew wrote:
>> Hi Jim,
>>
>>    Wow ! And it does exactly what I was looking for.  Thank you very 
>> much.
>>
>> That assign function is pretty nice. I should become more familiar 
>> with it.
>
> Indeed you should, and assign() is indeed nice and useful and handy. 
> But it should be used with care and circumspection.  It *alters the 
> global environment* which is fraught with peril. Generally speaking 
> most things that can be done with assign() (and its companion function 
> get()) are better and more safely done using lists and functions and 
> other "natural" R-ish constructs. Resist the temptation to turn R into 
> a macro language.
>
> cheers,
>
> Rolf Turner
>

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