use dplyr mutate() in programming - r

Question

I am trying to assign a column name to a variable using mutate.
df <-data.frame(x = sample(1:100, 50), y = rnorm(50))
new <- function(name){
df%>%mutate(name = ifelse(x <50, "small", "big"))
}
When I run
new(name = "newVar")
it doesn't work. I know mutate_() could help but I'm struggling in using it together with ifelse.
Any help would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Using dplyr 0.7.1 and its advances in NSE, you have to UQ the argument to mutate and then use := when assigning. There is lots of info on programming with dplyr and NSE here: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/dplyr/vignettes/programming.html
I've changed the name of the function argument to myvar to avoid confusion. You could also use case_when from dplyr instead of ifelse if you have more categories to recode.
df <- data.frame(x = sample(1:100, 50), y = rnorm(50))
new <- function(myvar){
df %>% mutate(UQ(myvar) := ifelse(x < 50, "small", "big"))
}
new(myvar = "newVar")
This returns
x y newVar
1 37 1.82669 small
2 63 -0.04333 big
3 46 0.20748 small
4 93 0.94169 big
5 83 -0.15678 big
6 14 -1.43567 small
7 61 0.35173 big
8 26 -0.71826 small
9 21 1.09237 small
10 90 1.99185 big
11 60 -1.01408 big
12 70 0.87534 big
13 55 0.85325 big
14 38 1.70972 small
15 6 0.74836 small
16 23 -0.08528 small
17 27 2.02613 small
18 76 -0.45648 big
19 97 1.20124 big
20 99 -0.34930 big
21 74 1.77341 big
22 72 -0.32862 big
23 64 -0.07994 big
24 53 -0.40116 big
25 16 -0.70226 small
26 8 0.78965 small
27 34 0.01871 small
28 24 1.95154 small
29 82 -0.70616 big
30 77 -0.40387 big
31 43 -0.88383 small
32 88 -0.21862 big
33 45 0.53409 small
34 29 -2.29234 small
35 54 1.00730 big
36 22 -0.62636 small
37 100 0.75193 big
38 52 -0.41389 big
39 36 0.19817 small
40 89 -0.49224 big
41 81 -1.51998 big
42 18 0.57047 small
43 78 -0.44445 big
44 49 -0.08845 small
45 20 0.14014 small
46 32 0.48094 small
47 1 -0.12224 small
48 66 0.48769 big
49 11 -0.49005 small
50 87 -0.25517 big

Answer 2

Following the dlyr programming vignette, define your function as follows:
new <- function(name)
{
nn <- enquo(name) %>% quo_name()
df %>% mutate( !!nn := ifelse(x <50, "small", "big"))
}
enquo takes its expression argument and quotes it, followed by quo_name converting it into a string. Since nn is now quoted, we need to tell mutate not to quote it a second time. That's what !! is for. Finally, := is a helper operator to make it valid R code. Note that with this definition, you can simply pass newVar instead of "newVar" to your function, maintaining dplyr style.
> new( newVar ) %>% head
x y newVar
1 94 -1.07642088 big
2 85 0.68746266 big
3 80 0.02630903 big
4 74 0.18323506 big
5 86 0.85086915 big
6 38 0.41882858 small

Answer 3

Base R solution
df <-data.frame(x = sample(1:100, 50), y = rnorm(50))
new <- function(name){
df[,name]='s'
df[,name][df$x>50]='b'
return(df)
}
I am using dplyr 0.5 so i just combine base R with mutate
new <- function(Name){
df=mutate(df,ifelse(x <50, "small", "big"))
names(df)[3]=Name
return(df)
}
new("newVar")