Split a vector into chunks in R

Question

I have to split a vector into n chunks of equal size in R. I couldn't find any base function to do that. Also Google didn't get me anywhere. So here is what I came up with, hopefully it helps someone some where.

x <- 1:10
n <- 3
chunk <- function(x,n) split(x, factor(sort(rank(x)%%n)))
chunk(x,n)
$`0`
[1] 1 2 3

$`1`
[1] 4 5 6 7

$`2`
[1]  8  9 10

Any comments, suggestions or improvements are really welcome and appreciated.

Cheers, Sebastian

Answer 1

chunk2 <- function(x,n) split(x, cut(seq_along(x), n, labels = FALSE)) 

Answer 2

simplified version...
n = 3
split(x, sort(x%%n))

Answer 3

A few more variants to the pile...

> x <- 1:10
> n <- 3

Note, that you don't need to use the factor function here, but you still want to sort o/w your first vector would be 1 2 3 10:

> chunk <- function(x, n) split(x, sort(rank(x) %% n))
> chunk(x,n)
$`0`
[1] 1 2 3
$`1`
[1] 4 5 6 7
$`2`
[1]  8  9 10

Or you can assign character indices, vice the numbers in left ticks above:

> my.chunk <- function(x, n) split(x, sort(rep(letters[1:n], each=n, len=length(x))))
> my.chunk(x, n)
$a
[1] 1 2 3 4
$b
[1] 5 6 7
$c
[1]  8  9 10

Or you can use plainword names stored in a vector. Note that using sort to get consecutive values in x alphabetizes the labels:

> my.other.chunk <- function(x, n) split(x, sort(rep(c("tom", "dick", "harry"), each=n, len=length(x))))
> my.other.chunk(x, n)
$dick
[1] 1 2 3
$harry
[1] 4 5 6
$tom
[1]  7  8  9 10

Answer 4

A one-liner splitting d into chunks of size 20:

split(d, ceiling(seq_along(d)/20))

More details: I think all you need is seq_along(), split() and ceiling():

> d <- rpois(73,5)
> d
 [1]  3  1 11  4  1  2  3  2  4 10 10  2  7  4  6  6  2  1  1  2  3  8  3 10  7  4
[27]  3  4  4  1  1  7  2  4  6  0  5  7  4  6  8  4  7 12  4  6  8  4  2  7  6  5
[53]  4  5  4  5  5  8  7  7  7  6  2  4  3  3  8 11  6  6  1  8  4
> max <- 20
> x <- seq_along(d)
> d1 <- split(d, ceiling(x/max))
> d1
$`1`
 [1]  3  1 11  4  1  2  3  2  4 10 10  2  7  4  6  6  2  1  1  2

$`2`
 [1]  3  8  3 10  7  4  3  4  4  1  1  7  2  4  6  0  5  7  4  6

$`3`
 [1]  8  4  7 12  4  6  8  4  2  7  6  5  4  5  4  5  5  8  7  7

$`4`
 [1]  7  6  2  4  3  3  8 11  6  6  1  8  4

Answer 5

If you don't like split() and you don't mind NAs padding out your short tail:

chunk <- function(x, n) { if((length(x)%%n)==0) {return(matrix(x, nrow=n))} else {return(matrix(append(x, rep(NA, n-(length(x)%%n))), nrow=n))} }

The columns of the returned matrix ([,1:ncol]) are the droids you are looking for.

Answer 6

Using base R's rep_len:

x <- 1:10
n <- 3

split(x, rep_len(1:n, length(x)))
# $`1`
# [1]  1  4  7 10
# 
# $`2`
# [1] 2 5 8
# 
# $`3`
# [1] 3 6 9

And as already mentioned if you want sorted indices, simply:

split(x, sort(rep_len(1:n, length(x))))
# $`1`
# [1] 1 2 3 4
# 
# $`2`
# [1] 5 6 7
# 
# $`3`
# [1]  8  9 10