Drop data frame columns by name
Asked 07 September, 2021
Viewed 1.5K times
  • 58
Votes

I have a number of columns that I would like to remove from a data frame. I know that we can delete them individually using something like:

df$x <- NULL

But I was hoping to do this with fewer commands.

Also, I know that I could drop columns using integer indexing like this:

df <- df[ -c(1, 3:6, 12) ]

But I am concerned that the relative position of my variables may change.

Given how powerful R is, I figured there might be a better way than dropping each column one by one.

21 Answer