How to Split Column Into Multiple Columns in R (With Examples)

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You can use one of the following two methods to split one column into multiple columns in R:

Method 1: Use str_split_fixed()

library(stringr)

df[c('col1', 'col2')] sep', 2)

Method 2: Use separate()

library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)

df %>% separate(original_column, c('col1', 'col2'))

The following examples show how to use each method in practice.

Method 1: Use str_split_fixed()

Suppose we have the following data frame:

#create data frame
df frame(player=c('John_Wall', 'Dirk_Nowitzki', 'Steve_Nash'),
                 points=c(22, 29, 18),
                 assists=c(8, 4, 15))

#view data frame
df

         player points assists
1     John_Wall     22       8
2 Dirk_Nowitzki     29       4
3    Steve_Nash     18      15

We can use the str_split_fixed() function from the stringr package to separate the ‘player’ column into two new columns called ‘First’ and ‘Last’ as follows:

library(stringr)

#split 'player' column using '_' as the separator
df[c('First', 'Last')] _', 2)

#view updated data frame
df

         player points assists First     Last
1     John_Wall     22       8  John     Wall
2 Dirk_Nowitzki     29       4  Dirk Nowitzki
3    Steve_Nash     18      15 Steve     Nash

Notice that two new columns are added at the end of the data frame.

Feel free to rearrange the columns and drop the original ‘player’ columns if you’d like:

#rearrange columns and leave out original 'player' column
df_final #view updated data frame
df_final

  First     Last points assists
1  John     Wall     22       8
2  Dirk Nowitzki     29       4
3 Steve     Nash     18      15

Method 2: Use separate()

The following code shows how to use the separate() function from the tidyr package to separate the ‘player’ column into ‘first’ and ‘last’ columns:

library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)

#create data frame
df frame(player=c('John_Wall', 'Dirk_Nowitzki', 'Steve_Nash'),
                 points=c(22, 29, 18),
                 assists=c(8, 4, 15))

#separate 'player' column into 'First' and 'Last'
df %>% separate(player, c('First', 'Last'))

  First     Last points assists
1  John     Wall     22       8
2  Dirk Nowitzki     29       4
3 Steve     Nash     18      15

Note that the separate() function will separate strings based on any non-alphanumeric value.

For example, if the first and last names were separated by a comma, the separate() function would automatically split based on the location of the comma:

library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)

#create data frame
df frame(player=c('John,Wall', 'Dirk,Nowitzki', 'Steve,Nash'),
                 points=c(22, 29, 18),
                 assists=c(8, 4, 15))

#separate 'player' column into 'First' and 'Last'
df %>% separate(player, c('First', 'Last'))

  First     Last points assists
1  John     Wall     22       8
2  Dirk Nowitzki     29       4
3 Steve     Nash     18      15

You can find the complete online documentation for the separate() function here.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in R:

How to Combine Two Columns into One in R
How to Sort a Data Frame by Column in R
How to Add Columns to Data Frame in R