How to remove a character in an R data frame column?

To remove a character in an R data frame column, we can use gsub() function which will replace the character with blank. For example, if we have a data frame called df that contains a character column say x which has a character ID in each value then it can be removed by using the command gsub("ID","",as.character(df$x)).

Example1

Consider the below data frame −

Live Demo

> x1<-sample(c("Male1","Female1"),20,replace=TRUE) > x2<-rpois(20,5) > df1<-data.frame(x1,x2) > df1

Output

        x1  x2 1    Male1  8 2  Female1  4 3    Male1  9 4    Male1  2 5    Male1  7 6  Female1  5 7    Male1  3 8  Female1  6 9  Female1  4 10 Female1  3 11   Male1  5 12   Male1  4 13 Female1  7 14   Male1  6 15 Female1  5 16   Male1  3 17 Female1 10 18 Female1  4 19   Male1  7 20 Female1  3

Removing 1 from all values in x1 −

> df1$x1<-gsub("1","",as.character(df1$x1)) > df1

Output

       x1  x2 1    Male  8 2  Female  4 3    Male  9 4    Male  2 5    Male  7 6  Female  5 7    Male  3 8  Female  6 9  Female  4 10 Female  3 11   Male  5 12   Male  4 13 Female  7 14   Male  6 15 Female  5 16   Male  3 17 Female 10 18 Female  4 19   Male  7 20 Female  3

Example2

Live Demo

> y1<-sample(c("Hot#","Cold#"),20,replace=TRUE) > y2<-rnorm(20) > df2<-data.frame(y1,y2) > df2

Output

      y1         y2 1  Cold#  0.1725073 2   Hot# -0.4692023 3   Hot#  2.4386160 4  Cold# -1.3592685 5   Hot#  0.4500866 6  Cold# -0.7023989 7  Cold#  0.7383042 8   Hot# -1.7325754 9   Hot#  0.2053521 10  Hot# -2.0123750 11 Cold# -0.7203218 12  Hot#  1.2389079 13 Cold# -0.6401144 14 Cold# -0.6136728 15  Hot#  1.2877643 16 Cold#  0.4291966 17 Cold#  1.8316996 18  Hot#  0.8165865 19 Cold# -0.3978465 20 Cold# -0.9352063

Removing # from all values in y1 −

> df2$y1<-gsub("#","",as.character(df2$y1)) > df2

Output

     y1         y2 1  Cold  0.1725073 2   Hot -0.4692023 3   Hot  2.4386160 4  Cold -1.3592685 5   Hot  0.4500866 6  Cold -0.7023989 7  Cold  0.7383042 8   Hot -1.7325754 9   Hot  0.2053521 10  Hot -2.0123750 11 Cold -0.7203218 12  Hot  1.2389079 13 Cold -0.6401144 14 Cold -0.6136728 15  Hot  1.2877643 16 Cold  0.4291966 17 Cold  1.8316996 18  Hot  0.8165865 19 Cold -0.3978465 20 Cold -0.9352063