How to merge data frames by row names in R?

Mostly, we merge the data frames by columns because column names are considered prominent in data sets but it is also possible to merge two data frames by using rows. Merging by rows is likely to result in more uncleaned data as compared to the merging by columns. This can be done with the help of merge function and its by argument.

Example

Consider the below data frames −

df1<-data.frame(x1=rnorm(10),x2=rpois(10,5))
df1

Output

   x1    x2
1  -0.47030794 0
2   0.86338465 8
3  -2.05770293 5
4   1.95479596 9
5  -0.06913421 5
6   0.64897263 5
7  -1.79859382 8
8   0.31247699 6
9  -0.36808285 7
10 -0.79578938 3

Output

df2 <-data.frame(x1=rnorm(10,1.5))
df2

Output

x1
1 -0.01317184
2  0.01687606
3 -0.71685289
4  1.75961121
5  2.49024285
6  2.92183374
7  0.10276216
8  1.39703966
9  1.41001339
10 0.98221783

Example

df3 <-data.frame(x1=rnorm(5,0.5),x2=runif(5,2,3),x3=runif(5,2,5))
df3

Output

      x1       x2       x3
1 -0.4926244 2.697937 3.961118
2  1.9863263 2.861944 3.659564
3 -0.2266537 2.383499 3.208741
4  0.5966503 2.511485 3.230795
5  0.7148641 2.362419 4.582841

Merging df1 with df2, df1 with df3, and df2 with df3 −

Example

df_1_2 <-merge(df1,df2,by='row.names',all=TRUE)
df_1_2

Output

Row.names x1.x x2 x1.y
1  1 -0.47030794 0 -0.01317184
2 10 -0.79578938 3  0.98221783
3  2 0.86338465  8  0.01687606
4  3 -2.05770293 5 -0.71685289
5  4 1.95479596  9  1.75961121
6  5 -0.06913421 5  2.49024285
7  6 0.64897263  5  2.92183374
8  7 -1.79859382 8  0.10276216
9  8 0.31247699  6  1.39703966
10 9 -0.36808285 7  1.41001339

Example

df_1_3 <-merge(df1,df3,by='row.names',all=TRUE)
df_1_3

Output

Row.names x1.x x2.x x1.y x2.y x3
1 1 -0.47030794 0 -0.4926244 2.697937 3.961118
2 10 -0.79578938 3 NA NA NA
3 2 0.86338465 8 1.9863263 2.861944 3.659564
4 3 -2.05770293 5 -0.2266537 2.383499 3.208741
5 4 1.95479596 9 0.5966503 2.511485 3.230795
6 5 -0.06913421 5 0.7148641 2.362419 4.582841
7 6 0.64897263 5 NA NA NA
8 7 -1.79859382 8 NA NA NA
9 8 0.31247699 6 NA NA NA
10 9 -0.36808285 7 NA NA NA

Example

df_2_3 <-merge(df2,df3,by='row.names',all=TRUE)
df_2_3

Output

Row.names x1.x x1.y x2 x3
1 1 -0.01317184 -0.4926244 2.697937 3.961118
2 10 0.98221783 NA NA NA
3 2 0.01687606 1.9863263 2.861944 3.659564
4 3 -0.71685289 -0.2266537 2.383499 3.208741
5 4 1.75961121 0.5966503 2.511485 3.230795
6 5 2.49024285 0.7148641 2.362419 4.582841
7 6 2.92183374 NA NA NA
8 7 0.10276216 NA NA NA
9 8 1.39703966 NA NA NA
10 9 1.41001339 NA NA NA