Question

I have a matrix

df<-matrix(data=c(3,7,5,0,1,0,0,0,0,8,0,9), ncol=2)
rownames(df)<-c("a","b","c","d","e","f")

[,1] [,2]
a    3    0
b    7    0
c    5    0
d    0    8
e    1    0
f    0    9

and I would like to order the matrix in descending order first by column 1 and then by column two resulting in the matrix

df.ordered<-matrix(data=c(7,5,3,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,9,8),ncol=2)
rownames(df.ordered)<-c("b","c","a","e","f","d")

   [,1] [,2]
 b    7    0
 c    5    0
 a    3    0
 e    1    0
 f    0    9
 d    0    8

Any suggestions on how I could achieve this? Thanks.

Answer 1

The order function should do it.

df[order(df[,1],df[,2],decreasing=TRUE),]