Remove First Character from Column Name in R Data Frame

To remove first character from column name in R data frame, we can use str_sub function of stringr package.

For Example, if we have a data frame called df that contains two columns say XID and XDV then we can remove X from both the column names by using the below mentioned command −

names(df)=str_sub(names(df),2)

Example 1

Following snippet creates a sample data frame −

XColor<-sample(c("Green","Red","Blue"),20,replace=TRUE)
YScore<-sample(1:100,20)
df1<-data.frame(XColor,YScore)
df1

The following dataframe is created

  XColor YScore
1  Green   46
2  Red     80
3  Red     22
4  Green   21
5  Blue    54
6  Red     81
7  Blue    41
8  Red      4
9  Blue    63
10 Green   67
11 Green   71
12 Red     65
13 Red     79
14 Blue    58
15 Blue    76
16 Green   10
17 Red     60 
18 Red     16
19 Green   27
20 Red     74

To load stringr package and remove first character from column names in df1 on the above created data frame, add the following code to the above snippet −

XColor<-sample(c("Green","Red","Blue"),20,replace=TRUE)
YScore<-sample(1:100,20)
df1<-data.frame(XColor,YScore)
library(stringr)
names(df1)=str_sub(names(df1),2)
df1

Output

If you execute all the above given snippets as a single program, it generates the following Output −

   Color Score
1  Green   46
2  Red     80
3  Red     22
4  Green   21
5  Blue    54
6  Red     81
7  Blue    41
8  Red      4
9  Blue    63
10 Green   67
11 Green   71
12 Red     65
13 Red     79
14 Blue    58
15 Blue    76
16 Green   10
17 Red     60
18 Red     16
19 Green   27
20 Red     74

Example 2

Following snippet creates a sample data frame −

SStudents_ID<-c(200001:200020)
LLevel<-sample(c("First","Second","Third"),20,replace=TRUE)
df2<-data.frame(SStudents,LLevel)
df2

The following dataframe is created

SStudents LLevel
1  200001 First
2  200002 Third
3  200003 Third
4  200004 Second
5  200005 Second
6  200006 Second
7  200007 Second
8  200008 First
9  200009 Second
10 200010 Second
11 200011 First
12 200012 Third
13 200013 Second
14 200014 Second
15 200015 Second
16 200016 First
17 200017 First
18 200018 Third
19 200019 Third
20 200020 Second

To remove first character from column names in df2 on the above created data frame, add the following code to the above snippet −

SStudents_ID<-c(200001:200020)
LLevel<-sample(c("First","Second","Third"),20,replace=TRUE)
df2<-data.frame(SStudents,LLevel)
names(df2)=str_sub(names(df2),2)
df2

Output

If you execute all the above given snippets as a single program, it generates the following Output −

  Students Level
1  200001 First
2  200002 Third
3  200003 Third
4  200004 Second
5  200005 Second
6  200006 Second
7  200007 Second
8  200008 First
9  200009 Second
10 200010 Second
11 200011 First
12 200012 Third
13 200013 Second
14 200014 Second
15 200015 Second
16 200016 First
17 200017 First
18 200018 Third
19 200019 Third
20 200020 Second