How to make all values in an R data frame unique?

To make all values in an R data frame unique, we can use make.unique function but firstly we would need to unlist the data frame values and read them with as.character. For Example, if we have a data frame called df that contains duplicate as well as nonduplicate values then we can make all the values unique by using the below command −

df[]<-make.unique(as.character(unlist(df)))

Example 1

Following snippet creates a sample data frame −

x<-rpois(20,1)
df1<-data.frame(x)
df1

The following dataframe is created

   x
1  0
2  0
3  1
4  1
5  1
6  0
7  2
8  0
9  1
10 0
11 0
12 0
13 1
14 2
15 1
16 1
17 0
18 0
19 1
20 1

To make all values in df1 unique on the above created data frame, add the following code to the above snippet −

x<-rpois(20,1)
df1<-data.frame(x)
df1[]<-make.unique(as.character(unlist(df1)))
df1

Output

If you execute all the above given snippets as a single program, it generates the following Output −

     x
1    0
2  0.1
3    1
4  1.1
5  1.2
6  0.2
7    2
8  0.3
9  1.3
10 0.4
11 0.5
12 0.6
13 1.4
14 2.1
15 1.5
16 1.6
17 0.7
18 0.8
19 1.7
20 1.8

Example 2

Following snippet creates a sample data frame −

y<-sample(letters[1:5],20,replace=TRUE)
df2<-data.frame(y)
df2

The following dataframe is created

   y
1  c
2  a
3  b
4  c
5  c
6  d
7  a
8  a
9  e
10 a
11 c
12 c
13 c
14 a
15 c
16 b
17 c
18 c
19 d
20 b

To make all values in df2 unique on the above created data frame, add the following code to the above snippet −

y<-sample(letters[1:5],20,replace=TRUE)
df2<-data.frame(y)
df2[]<-make.unique(as.character(unlist(df2)))
df2

Output

If you execute all the above given snippets as a single program, it generates the following Output −

     y
1    c
2    a
3    b
4  c.1
5  c.2
6    d
7  a.1
8  a.2
9    e
10 a.3
11 c.3
12 e.1
13 c.4
14 a.4
15 c.5
16 b.1
17 c.6
18 c.7
19 d.1
20 b.2

Nizamuddin Siddiqui

Updated on: 03-Nov-2021

313 Views

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