How to Add Row to DataFrame in R?

To add a new row(or rows) to DataFrame in R, you can use various functions. Adding is one of the data manipulation tasks of R programming. We know that the data frame in R language is a major data structure that can hold the data of different data types. So, we can easily modify these data using various approaches of R. Adding a new observation(row) to the data frame is one of the typical modifications in R.

In this article, I will explain how easy to add single/multiple rows to the DataFrame. The following methods are used to add a row to DataFrame in R.

rbind() from R base
add_row() from tibble or tidyverse
rows_insert() from dplyr

1. Quick Examples of Adding Row to DataFrame

The following are quick examples of how to add rows to a data.frame in R.


# Quick Examples of adding row to data frame

# Example 1: Add Row to the DataFrame
# This converts all types to string
df[nrow(df) + 1,] <- c(33, 50, "java")

# Example 2: Add Row to the DataFrame 
# with out changing data types
df[nrow(df) + 1,] <- list(33, 50, "java")

# Example 3: Add Row using rbind()
new_row = c(id = 33, pages=50, name = "java")
df3 = rbind(df,new_row)

# Example 4: Add data.frame with another
df2 = data.frame(id = 33, pages=50, name = "java")
df3 = rbind(df,df2)

# Example 5: using tibble/tidyverse
library(tidyverse)
df2 <- df %>% 
   add_row(id = 33, pages=50, name = "java")

# Example 6: Using dplyr
library(dplyr)
df2 = data.frame(id = 33, pages=50, name = "java")
df3 <- df %>% 
  rows_insert(df2)

Let’s create an R DataFrame, run these examples, and explore the output. If you already have data in CSV you can easily import CSV files to R DataFrame. Also, refer to Import Excel File into R.


# Create dataframe
df = data.frame(id=c(11,22),
              pages=c(32,45),
              name=c("spark","python"))
df

Yields below output.

2. Add Row to DataFrame

To add a new row to the DataFrame (data.frame) in R, first, you need to get the number of rows in the existing data frame used nrows(df) and add a new row towards the end nrow(df) + 1. The following example adds a new row at the end of the dataframe.


# Add Row to the DataFrame
# This converts all types to string
df[nrow(df) + 1,] <- c(33, 50, "java")
df

# Output
#  id pages   name
# 1 11    32  spark
# 2 22    45 python
# 3 33    50   java

When you have mixed data types some columns are numric and some columns are text, then it converts all columns to text. You can check this by running str(df).

Get the type of given data farme columns.

3. Add Rows by Not Changing Data Types

You can use list() function instead of a vector to add a new row. In this example, specify the new row values using list() function. In this case it doesn't change the types of columns. You can run str(df) and validate the result yourself.


# Add Row to the DataFrame 
# with out changing data types
df[nrow(df) + 1,] <- list(33, 50, "java")
df

# Output:
#  id pages   name
# 1 11    32  spark
# 2 22    45 python
# 3 33    50   java 

# Get the type of the columns
str(df)

# Output:
# 'data.frame':	3 obs. of  3 variables:
#  $ id   : num  11 22 33
#  $ pages: num  32 45 50
#  $ name : chr  "spark" "python" "java"

4. Add Row using rbind()

The rbind() function in R, short for row-bind, is used to combine vectors, lists, matrices, and data frames by rows. The following example adds a list as a row to the DataFrame.


# Add Row using rbind()
new_row = list(id = 33, pages=50, name = "java")
df3 = rbind(df,new_row)
df3

Yields the same as output the above.

5. Add DataFrame as a Row

You can also use rbind()function to append the new row by dataframe. When you do this, you have to set consistent column names for all the data frames you want to append.


# Add data.frame with another
df2 = data.frame(id = 33, pages=50, name = "java")
df3 = rbind(df,df2)
df3

Yields the same as output the above.

6. Use add_row() from tibble or tidyverse

The packages tibble or tidyverse provide a function add_row() to add a row to DataFrame in R. This is a convenient way to add one or more rows of data to an existing data frame.

To use this function first, you need to install R package by using install.packages("tidyverse") and load it using the library("tidyverse").


# syntax
add_row(.data, ..., .before = NULL, .after = NULL)

Example


# using add_row() From tibble or tidyverse
library(tidyverse)
df2 <- df %>% 
   add_row(id = 33, pages=50, name = "java")
df2

7. Use rows_insert() from dplyr

Finally, use rows_insert() function from the dplyr package to add a row to R DataFrame. You need to install and load this package to use this function.


# Using rows_insert() from dplyr
library(dplyr)
df2 = data.frame(id = 33, pages=50, name = "java")
df3 <- df %>% 
  rows_insert(df2)
df3

Frequently Asked Questions on Add Row to DataFrame in R

You can use the rbind() function to add a row to a DataFrame. For example, new_row <- c(1, "Java", 25)
df <- rbind(df, new_row).

You can add a row with missing values. If your DataFrame has columns with different data types, R will try to coerce the values to a common type, and missing values (NA) can be used for this purpose.

If the data types of the new row don't match the existing DataFrame, R will attempt to coerce them. If coercion is not possible, you may encounter errors or unexpected behavior. It's generally good practice to ensure that the data types match or can be coerced appropriately.

Besides rbind(), you can also use the bind_rows() function from the dplyr package:

you can add multiple rows using the same rbind() or bind_rows() approach. Just make sure that the structure of the new rows matches the DataFrame.

8. Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to add a new row(or rows) to DataFraem in R by using the rbin() function base library, add_row() from tibble or tidyverse, and rows_inser() from dplyr.

References

https://dplyr.tidyverse.org/reference/rows.html