How to sort a dataframe by multiple column(s)

Question

I want to sort a data.frame by multiple columns. For example, with the data.frame below I would like to sort by column z (descending) then by column b (ascending):

dd <- data.frame(b = factor(c("Hi", "Med", "Hi", "Low"), 
      levels = c("Low", "Med", "Hi"), ordered = TRUE),
      x = c("A", "D", "A", "C"), y = c(8, 3, 9, 9),
      z = c(1, 1, 1, 2))
dd
    b x y z
1  Hi A 8 1
2 Med D 3 1
3  Hi A 9 1
4 Low C 9 2

Answer 1

There are a lot of excellent answers here, but dplyr gives the only syntax that I can quickly and easily remember (and so now use very often):

library(dplyr)
# sort mtcars by mpg, ascending... use desc(mpg) for descending
arrange(mtcars, mpg)
# sort mtcars first by mpg, then by cyl, then by wt)
arrange(mtcars , mpg, cyl, wt)

For the OP's problem:

arrange(dd, desc(z),  b)

    b x y z
1 Low C 9 2
2 Med D 3 1
3  Hi A 8 1
4  Hi A 9 1

Answer 2

In response to a comment added in the OP for how to sort programmatically:

Using dplyr and data.table

library(dplyr)
library(data.table)

dplyr

Just use arrange_, which is the Standard Evaluation version for arrange.

df1 <- tbl_df(iris)
#using strings or formula
arrange_(df1, c('Petal.Length', 'Petal.Width'))
arrange_(df1, ~Petal.Length, ~Petal.Width)
    Source: local data frame [150 x 5]

   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
          (dbl)       (dbl)        (dbl)       (dbl)  (fctr)
1           4.6         3.6          1.0         0.2  setosa
2           4.3         3.0          1.1         0.1  setosa
3           5.8         4.0          1.2         0.2  setosa
4           5.0         3.2          1.2         0.2  setosa
5           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
6           5.4         3.9          1.3         0.4  setosa
7           5.5         3.5          1.3         0.2  setosa
8           4.4         3.0          1.3         0.2  setosa
9           5.0         3.5          1.3         0.3  setosa
10          4.5         2.3          1.3         0.3  setosa
..          ...         ...          ...         ...     ...


#Or using a variable
sortBy <- c('Petal.Length', 'Petal.Width')
arrange_(df1, .dots = sortBy)
    Source: local data frame [150 x 5]

   Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width Species
          (dbl)       (dbl)        (dbl)       (dbl)  (fctr)
1           4.6         3.6          1.0         0.2  setosa
2           4.3         3.0          1.1         0.1  setosa
3           5.8         4.0          1.2         0.2  setosa
4           5.0         3.2          1.2         0.2  setosa
5           4.7         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
6           5.5         3.5          1.3         0.2  setosa
7           4.4         3.0          1.3         0.2  setosa
8           4.4         3.2          1.3         0.2  setosa
9           5.0         3.5          1.3         0.3  setosa
10          4.5         2.3          1.3         0.3  setosa
..          ...         ...          ...         ...     ...

#Doing the same operation except sorting Petal.Length in descending order
sortByDesc <- c('desc(Petal.Length)', 'Petal.Width')
arrange_(df1, .dots = sortByDesc)

more info here: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/dplyr/vignettes/nse.html

It is better to use formula as it also captures the environment to evaluate an expression in

data.table

dt1 <- data.table(iris) #not really required, as you can work directly on your data.frame
sortBy <- c('Petal.Length', 'Petal.Width')
sortType <- c(-1, 1)
setorderv(dt1, sortBy, sortType)
dt1
     Sepal.Length Sepal.Width Petal.Length Petal.Width   Species
  1:          7.7         2.6          6.9         2.3 virginica
  2:          7.7         2.8          6.7         2.0 virginica
  3:          7.7         3.8          6.7         2.2 virginica
  4:          7.6         3.0          6.6         2.1 virginica
  5:          7.9         3.8          6.4         2.0 virginica
 ---                                                            
146:          5.4         3.9          1.3         0.4    setosa
147:          5.8         4.0          1.2         0.2    setosa
148:          5.0         3.2          1.2         0.2    setosa
149:          4.3         3.0          1.1         0.1    setosa
150:          4.6         3.6          1.0         0.2    setosa

Answer 3

Your choices

• order from base
• arrange from dplyr
• setorder and setorderv from data.table
• arrange from plyr
• sort from taRifx
• orderBy from doBy
• sortData from Deducer

Most of the time you should use the dplyr or data.table solutions, unless having no-dependencies is important, in which case use base::order.

---

I recently added sort.data.frame to a CRAN package, making it class compatible as discussed here: Best way to create generic/method consistency for sort.data.frame?

Therefore, given the data.frame dd, you can sort as follows:

dd <- data.frame(b = factor(c("Hi", "Med", "Hi", "Low"), 
      levels = c("Low", "Med", "Hi"), ordered = TRUE),
      x = c("A", "D", "A", "C"), y = c(8, 3, 9, 9),
      z = c(1, 1, 1, 2))
library(taRifx)
sort(dd, f= ~ -z + b )

If you are one of the original authors of this function, please contact me. Discussion as to public domaininess is here: http://chat.stackoverflow.com/transcript/message/1094290#1094290

---

You can also use the arrange() function from plyr as Hadley pointed out in the above thread:

library(plyr)
arrange(dd,desc(z),b)

---

Benchmarks: Note that I loaded each package in a new R session since there were a lot of conflicts. In particular loading the doBy package causes sort to return "The following object(s) are masked from 'x (position 17)': b, x, y, z", and loading the Deducer package overwrites sort.data.frame from Kevin Wright or the taRifx package.

#Load each time
dd <- data.frame(b = factor(c("Hi", "Med", "Hi", "Low"), 
      levels = c("Low", "Med", "Hi"), ordered = TRUE),
      x = c("A", "D", "A", "C"), y = c(8, 3, 9, 9),
      z = c(1, 1, 1, 2))
library(microbenchmark)

# Reload R between benchmarks
microbenchmark(dd[with(dd, order(-z, b)), ] ,
    dd[order(-dd$z, dd$b),],
    times=1000
)

Median times:

dd[with(dd, order(-z, b)), ] 778

dd[order(-dd$z, dd$b),] 788

library(taRifx)
microbenchmark(sort(dd, f= ~-z+b ),times=1000)

Median time: 1,567

library(plyr)
microbenchmark(arrange(dd,desc(z),b),times=1000)

Median time: 862

library(doBy)
microbenchmark(orderBy(~-z+b, data=dd),times=1000)

Median time: 1,694

Note that doBy takes a good bit of time to load the package.

library(Deducer)
microbenchmark(sortData(dd,c("z","b"),increasing= c(FALSE,TRUE)),times=1000)

Couldn't make Deducer load. Needs JGR console.

esort <- function(x, sortvar, ...) {
attach(x)
x <- x[with(x,order(sortvar,...)),]
return(x)
detach(x)
}

microbenchmark(esort(dd, -z, b),times=1000)

Doesn't appear to be compatible with microbenchmark due to the attach/detach.

---

m <- microbenchmark(
  arrange(dd,desc(z),b),
  sort(dd, f= ~-z+b ),
  dd[with(dd, order(-z, b)), ] ,
  dd[order(-dd$z, dd$b),],
  times=1000
  )

uq <- function(x) { fivenum(x)[4]}  
lq <- function(x) { fivenum(x)[2]}

y_min <- 0 # min(by(m$time,m$expr,lq))
y_max <- max(by(m$time,m$expr,uq)) * 1.05

p <- ggplot(m,aes(x=expr,y=time)) + coord_cartesian(ylim = c( y_min , y_max )) 
p + stat_summary(fun.y=median,fun.ymin = lq, fun.ymax = uq, aes(fill=expr))

(lines extend from lower quartile to upper quartile, dot is the median)

---

Given these results and weighing simplicity vs. speed, I'd have to give the nod to arrange in the plyr package. It has a simple syntax and yet is almost as speedy as the base R commands with their convoluted machinations. Typically brilliant Hadley Wickham work. My only gripe with it is that it breaks the standard R nomenclature where sorting objects get called by sort(object), but I understand why Hadley did it that way due to issues discussed in the question linked above.

Answer 4

You can use the order() function directly without resorting to add-on tools -- see this simpler answer which uses a trick right from the top of the example(order) code:

R> dd[with(dd, order(-z, b)), ]
    b x y z
4 Low C 9 2
2 Med D 3 1
1  Hi A 8 1
3  Hi A 9 1

Edit some 2+ years later: It was just asked how to do this by column index. The answer is to simply pass the desired sorting column(s) to the order() function:

R> dd[order(-dd[,4], dd[,1]), ]
    b x y z
4 Low C 9 2
2 Med D 3 1
1  Hi A 8 1
3  Hi A 9 1
R> 

rather than using the name of the column (and with() for easier/more direct access).

Answer 5

The arrange() in dplyer is my favorite option. Use the pipe operator and go from least important to most important aspect

dd1 <- dd %>%
    arrange(z) %>%
    arrange(desc(x))

Answer 6

Just like the mechanical card sorters of long ago, first sort by the least significant key, then the next most significant, etc. No library required, works with any number of keys and any combination of ascending and descending keys.

 dd <- dd[order(dd$b, decreasing = FALSE),]

Now we're ready to do the most significant key. The sort is stable, and any ties in the most significant key have already been resolved.

dd <- dd[order(dd$z, decreasing = TRUE),]

This may not be the fastest, but it is certainly simple and reliable