Learn R – How to Get Data Frames Columns as Vectors

This article represents different ways in which one could get a data frame column as a vector. Please feel free to comment/suggest if I missed to mention one or more important points. Also, sorry for the typos.

4 Techniques to Get Data Frame Column as Vector

In the examples below, diamonds dataset from ggplot2 package is considered. This is how a diamond dataset looks like:

Following are four different technique/method using which one could retrieve a data frame column as a vector.

# In the data set shown above, carat represents column name and hence, [['carat']]
carat1 <- diamonds[['carat']]
# In the data set shown above, carat represents 1st column and hence, index 1
carat2 <- diamonds[,1]
# Pay attention to usage of dollar $ operator
carat3 <- diamonds$carat
# In the data set shown above, carat represents column name and hence, [, "carat"]
carat4 <- diamonds[,"carat"]