How to Select Columns by Index Using dplyr

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You can use the following basic syntax in dplyr to select data frame columns by index position:

#select columns in specific index positions
df %>%
  select(1, 4, 5)

#exclude columns in specific index positions
df %>%
  select(-c(1,2))

The following examples show how to use this syntax in practice with the following data frame:

#create data frame
df frame(team=c('A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E'),
                 points=c(99, 90, 86, 88, 95),
                 assists=c(33, 28, 31, 39, 34),
                 rebounds=c(30, 28, 24, 24, 28),
                 blocks=c(14, 19, 22, 18, 15))

#view data frame
df

  team points assists rebounds blocks
1    A     99      33       30     14
2    B     90      28       28     19
3    C     86      31       24     22
4    D     88      39       24     18
5    E     95      34       28     15

Example 1: Select Columns in Specific Index Positions

The following code shows how to select columns in specific index positions:

library(dplyr)

#select columns in position 1, 4, and 5
df %>%
  select(1, 4, 5)

  team rebounds blocks
1    A       30     14
2    B       28     19
3    C       24     22
4    D       24     18
5    E       28     15

Example 2: Select Columns in Range

The following code shows how to select columns in a range:

library(dplyr)

#select columns in position 2 through 4
df %>%
  select(2:4)

  points assists rebounds
1     99      33       30
2     90      28       28
3     86      31       24
4     88      39       24
5     95      34       28

Example 3: Exclude Specific Columns

The following code shows how to exclude specific columns based on index position:

library(dplyr)

#select all columns except those in position 1 and 2
df %>%
  select(-c(1, 2))

  assists rebounds blocks
1      33       30     14
2      28       28     19
3      31       24     22
4      39       24     18
5      34       28     15

Notice that the first and second column are excluded.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common functions in dplyr:

How to Select Columns by Name Using dplyr
How to Filter Rows that Contain a Certain String Using dplyr
How to Select the First Row by Group Using dplyr
How to Replace NA with Zero in dplyr