Hi following Programming with dplyr I noticed that one can add a name using quo_name. I was wondering how to do this for multiple columns, eg. like a quos_name of sorts. E.g.:
my_mutate <- function(df, expr) {
expr <- enquo(expr)
mean_name <- paste0("mean_", quo_name(expr))
sum_name <- paste0("sum_", quo_name(expr))
mutate(df,
!!mean_name := mean(!!expr),
!!sum_name := sum(!!expr)
)
}
becomes
my_mutate <- function(df, ...) {
exprs <-quos(...)
mean_names <- paste0("mean_", quos_name(exprs))
sum_names <- paste0("sum_", quos_name(exprs))
mutate(df,
!!!mean_names := mean(!!!exprs),
!!!sum_names := sum(!!!exprs)
)
}
ie. adding the mean and sum columns for all columns specified in ...
, of course this is only as an example and quos_names don't exist. It would be very helpful if there is a way of doing this.
I know it is possible to do something like this in data.table DT[,(Col_names):=lapply(Cols,mean)]
for instance (This code does not work, but I have done something like this before).
DISCLAIMER: While mutate_at
proposed by @aosmith is in my opinion the best and simplest solution, I think it might be instructive to see how the problem could be approached using rlang
tools, if mutate_at
didn't exist. For science!
As mentioned in the comments, you will want to look into purrr::map()
family of functions. You will also run into a separate problem with !!!mean_names := mean(!!!exprs)
because the !!!
splice operator cannot be used on the left hand of the assignment.
The best rlang
approach is to compose your mutate
expressions as a named list. Use quo
to perform expression arithmetic and stringr::str_c
(or paste0
as you've been doing) for string arithmetic:
library( tidyverse )
my_mutate <- function(df, ...) {
exprs <- enquos(...)
mean_exprs <- set_names(
map(exprs, ~quo(mean(!!.x))), # mpg becomes mean(mpg)
str_c("mean_", map_chr(exprs, quo_name)) ) # mpg becomes "mean_mpg"
sum_exprs <- set_names(
map(exprs, ~quo(sum(!!.x))), # mpg becomes sum(mpg)
str_c("sum_", map_chr(exprs, quo_name)) ) # mpg becomes "sum_mpg"
mutate(df, !!!mean_exprs, !!!sum_exprs)
}
mtcars %>% my_mutate( mpg, cyl )
# mpg cyl disp hp ... mean_mpg mean_cyl sum_mpg sum_cyl
# 1 21.0 6 160 110 ... 20.09062 6.1875 642.9 198
# 2 21.0 6 160 110 ... 20.09062 6.1875 642.9 198
# 3 22.8 4 108 93 ... 20.09062 6.1875 642.9 198
# 4 21.4 6 258 110 ... 20.09062 6.1875 642.9 198
BONUS: You will notice that we are repeating a chunk of code in our definition of expressions above. We can pull that out into a standalone function that automatically constructs expressions with the provided function and names those expressions accordingly:
mutator <- function(f, ...) {
f_expr <- enquo(f)
exprs <- enquos(...)
## Same code as in my_mutate above, but with an arbitrary function
set_names(
map( exprs, ~quo((!!f_expr)(!!.x)) ),
str_c( quo_name(f_expr), "_", map_chr(exprs, quo_name) )
)
}
## Example usage
mutator( sd, mpg, cyl )
# $sd_mpg
# <quosure>
# expr: ^^sd(^mpg)
# env: 0x555e05260020
# $sd_cyl
# <quosure>
# expr: ^^sd(^cyl)
# env: 0x555e05273af8
We can now use the new mutator
function to re-define my_mutate
as a simple one-liner:
my_mutate2 <- function(df, ...) {
mutate( df, !!!mutator(mean, ...), !!!mutator(sum, ...) )
}
It seems that you found an answer using mutate_at
, but in case you need to do that in another context, I'll add the following way.
If you use the following function, you'll see that quos(...)
returns a list of quosures corresponding to your arguments.
watch_quos <- function(...){
quos_args <- quos(...)
return(quos_args)
}
# Returns a list of closures
watch_quos(hello, iam, several, arguments)
So you can easily convert the result of quos
to a list (or vector) of characters applying quo_name
to each quoted arguments using one of sapply
or lapply
:
quo_names <- function(...) {
quos_args <- quos(...)
char_args <- lapply(quos_args, quo_name)
return(char_args)
}
# Returns a character list
quo_names(hello, iwill, be, char, arguments)