Our Example Data Frame

We’ll start with a simple data frame containing employee names, their job titles, and their salaries.

# Creating the data frame
employees <- data.frame(
  Name = c("Alice", "Bob", "Charlie"),
  JobTitle = c("Data Scientist", "Software Engineer", "Product Manager"),
  Salary = c(120000, 110000, 105000)
)

print(employees)

     Name          JobTitle Salary
1   Alice    Data Scientist 120000
2     Bob Software Engineer 110000
3 Charlie   Product Manager 105000

Concatenation Using Base R

In base R, we can concatenate strings using the paste() and paste0() functions. The paste() function combines strings with a specified separator, while paste0() does the same without any separator.

To create a single string for each employee that combines their name, job title, and salary, we can use paste():

# Concatenating using paste()
employees$Summary <- paste(
  employees$Name, 
  "is a", employees$JobTitle, 
  "earning $", employees$Salary
  )

print(employees$Summary)

[1] "Alice is a Data Scientist earning $ 120000"   
[2] "Bob is a Software Engineer earning $ 110000"  
[3] "Charlie is a Product Manager earning $ 105000"

The paste() function automatically adds a space between the elements. If you want to control the separator, you can use the sep parameter. For instance:

# Concatenating with a custom separator
employees$Summary <- paste(employees$Name, employees$JobTitle, employees$Salary, sep = " | ")

print(employees$Summary)

[1] "Alice | Data Scientist | 120000"    "Bob | Software Engineer | 110000"  
[3] "Charlie | Product Manager | 105000"

Concatenation Using stringr

The stringr package provides a more consistent and user-friendly approach to string manipulation. The str_c() function is used for concatenation.

First, install and load the stringr package:

# Install if you do not have it
# install.packages("stringr")
library(stringr)

Now, let’s concatenate the strings using str_c():

# Concatenating using str_c()
employees$Summary <- str_c(
  employees$Name, 
  "is a", employees$JobTitle, "earning $", 
  employees$Salary, 
  sep = " "
  )

print(employees$Summary)

[1] "Alice is a Data Scientist earning $ 120000"   
[2] "Bob is a Software Engineer earning $ 110000"  
[3] "Charlie is a Product Manager earning $ 105000"

The str_c() function works similarly to paste(), but with a consistent syntax and more intuitive parameter names.

Concatenation Using stringi

The stringi package is another powerful tool for string manipulation. It offers a wide range of functions, including stri_c() for concatenation.

First, install and load the stringi package:

# Install if you do not have it
# install.packages("stringi")
library(stringi)

Now, let’s concatenate the strings using stri_c():

# Concatenating using stri_c()
employees$Summary <- stri_c(
  employees$Name, 
  "is a", employees$JobTitle, 
  "earning $", employees$Salary, 
  sep = " "
  )

print(employees$Summary)

[1] "Alice is a Data Scientist earning $ 120000"   
[2] "Bob is a Software Engineer earning $ 110000"  
[3] "Charlie is a Product Manager earning $ 105000"

The stri_c() function is similar to str_c() from the stringr package, but it provides additional features for advanced string manipulation.

Concatenation Using glue

The glue package offers a unique approach to string concatenation by allowing you to embed R expressions directly within strings.

First, install and load the glue package:

# Install if you do not have it
# install.packages("glue")
library(glue)

Now, let’s use glue() to create the summary strings:

# Concatenating using glue()
employees$Summary <- glue(
  "{employees$Name} is a {employees$JobTitle} earning ${employees$Salary}"
  )

print(employees$Summary)

Alice is a Data Scientist earning $120000
Bob is a Software Engineer earning $110000
Charlie is a Product Manager earning $105000

The glue() function makes it easy to embed variable values within strings, providing a clear and readable syntax. It also has in my opinion the nicest output as you will notice there is no space between the salary and the dollar sign.