How to drop data frame columns in R by using column name?

Columns of a data frame can be dropped by creating an object of columns that we want to drop or an object of columns that we want to keep.

Example

> df <- data.frame( Var1 =1:10, Var2 =11:20, Var3 =21:30, Var4 =31:40 ) We can drop columns Var1 and Var2 using the below code: drops <- c("Var1","Var2") > df[ , !(names(df) %in% drops)] Var3 Var4 1 21 31 2 22 32 3 23 33 4 24 34 5 25 35 6 26 36 7 27 37 8 28 38 9 29 39 10 30 40

Alternatively, we can do the same by using keeps function that will keep the variables we want to have in our data frame as shown below −

> keeps <- c("Var3", "Var4") > df[keeps] Var3 Var4 1 21 31 2 22 32 3 23 33 4 24 34 5 25 35 6 26 36 7 27 37 8 28 38 9 29 39 10 30 40