[R] passing dataframe col name through cbind()

[Eric Rupley]

Hi all ---

I note that the column name of the first column in a dataframe does not necessarily get passed on when using cbind (example below)…

I'm looking for help in clarifying why this behavior occurs, and how I can get all col names, including the first, passed on to the result…while I suspect it's obvious and documented to the cognoscenti, it's puzzling me…

Many thanks for any help on this...
Eric

> scores <- data.frame(name=c("Bob","Ron","Bud"),round1=c(40,30,20),round2=c(5,6,4)) #some toy data
>
> scores
  name round1 round2
1  Bob     40      5
2  Ron     30      6
3  Bud     20      4
>

> cbind(scores[,1],total=rowSums(scores[,2:3]),scores[,2:3])
  scores[, 1] total round1 round2
1         Bob    45     40      5
2         Ron    36     30      6
3         Bud    24     20      4
> 

...first column renamed...

…yet this passes all column names:

> cbind(scores[,1:3])
  name round1 round2
1  Bob     40      5
2  Ron     30      6
3  Bud     20      4
> 

…but this doesn't:

> cbind(scores[,1],scores[,2:3])
  scores[, 1] round1 round2
1         Bob     40      5
2         Ron     30      6
3         Bud     20      4


--
 Eric Rupley
 University of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology
 1109 Geddes Ave, Rm. 4013
 Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1079
 
 erupley at umich.edu
 +1.734.276.8572