I have four columns:
| Year | I | I | I | 
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 
| 1952 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 
| 1953 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 
how do I combine them into two like that?:
| Year | I | 
|---|---|
| 1951 | 4 | 
| 1951 | 6 | 
| 1951 | 7 | 
| 1952 | 8 | 
| 1952 | 0 | 
| 1952 | 3 | 
| 1953 | 3 | 
| 1953 | 2 | 
| 1953 | 9 | 
I have four columns:
| Year | I | I | I | 
|---|---|---|---|
| 1951 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 
| 1952 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 
| 1953 | 3 | 2 | 9 | 
how do I combine them into two like that?:
| Year | I | 
|---|---|
| 1951 | 4 | 
| 1951 | 6 | 
| 1951 | 7 | 
| 1952 | 8 | 
| 1952 | 0 | 
| 1952 | 3 | 
| 1953 | 3 | 
| 1953 | 2 | 
| 1953 | 9 | 
I am not completely sure what your format is, but probably you want something like this by using pivot_longer to make your table from wide to long:
df <- data.frame(Year = c(1951, 1952, 1953),
                 v1 = c(4,8,3),
                 v2 = c(6,0,2),
                 v3 = c(7,3,9))
library(tidyr)
df %>%
  pivot_longer(!Year, names_to = "variable", values_to = "values")
Output:
# A tibble: 9 × 3
   Year variable values
  <dbl> <chr>     <dbl>
1  1951 v1            4
2  1951 v2            6
3  1951 v3            7
4  1952 v1            8
5  1952 v2            0
6  1952 v3            3
7  1953 v1            3
8  1953 v2            2
9  1953 v3            9
