combining dataframes using rbind + adding a separate column that includes the names of the individual dataframes

Question

Just a question on rbind.

When running df_all <- rbind(df_1, df_2 ...) to combine multiple dataframes, I was wondering whether is it possible to add in a separate column that includes the names of the individual dataframes where each observation originates from?

Many Thanks, Mervyn

Hey Ronak, thanks for your answer! I tried this out, and while it does generate a separate column, it does not contain the names of the dataframe that each observation belongs to — MervS, Sep 03 '20 at 01:23

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 03 '20 at 01:27

Try this approach :

library(dplyr)
new_df <- bind_rows(lst(df_1, df_2), .id = 'id')

Similarly, if there are lot of such dataframes you don't need to write them one by one. Create a string vector using paste0 and then use mget + bind_rows.

new_df <- bind_rows(mget(paste0('df_', 1:2)), .id = 'id')

You can change 2 to whatever number of dataframes that you have in your global environment.

combining dataframes using rbind + adding a separate column that includes the names of the individual dataframes

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