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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-13T22:16:02+00:00

I have a large number of data sets each containing a long list of

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I have a large number of data sets each containing a long list of column names. In some files the column names are all capital letters and in some files only the first letter of the column names is capitalized. I need to append the data sets and thought the easiest way to match column names among data sets would be to convert the all-capital names into names with only the first letter capitalized.

I am hoping to find a general solution, maybe even a one-liner.

Here is my example data set. The desired names are included in the names statements.

my.data2 <-  "
landuse units grade CLAY    LINCOLN  BASINANDRANGE  MCCARTNEY  MAPLE
apple   acres AAA     0         2          3             4         6
apple   acres AA   1000       900         NA            NA       700
pear    acres AA   10.0        20         NA          30.0        40
peach   acres AAA   500       400        350           300       200
"
my.data2 <- read.table(textConnection(my.data2), header=TRUE)

names(my.data2)[names(my.data2)=="CLAY"]            <- "Clay"
names(my.data2)[names(my.data2)=="BASINANDRANGE"]   <- "BasinandRange"
names(my.data2)[names(my.data2)=="LINCOLN"]         <- "Lincoln"
names(my.data2)[names(my.data2)=="MCCARTNEY"]       <- "McCartney"
names(my.data2)[names(my.data2)=="MAPLE"]           <- "Maple"

my.data2

Note that I included the names McCartney and BasinandRange to make things more realistic and more difficult. However, if I can find a one-liner to deal with 95% of the names and use the above names statements to deal with complications like McCartney and BasinandRange that would be great.

I have searched the internet, including the StackOverflow archives, without finding a solution. Sorry if I overlooked one. Thank you for any help.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Here is a one-liner implementing “the easiest way to match column names among data sets” that I can think of:

    ## Columns 1:3 left unaltered since they are not place names.
names(my.data2)[-1:-3] <- tolower(names(my.data2)[-1:-3])

## View the results
names(my.data2)
# [1] "landuse"       "units"         "grade"         "clay"         
# [5] "lincoln"       "basinandrange" "mccartney"     "maple"
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