SSCC - Social Science Computing Cooperative Supporting Statistical Analysis for Research

2.12 Combining data sets

The join functions create a new tibble by matching rows from two tibbles. The tibbles are identified as the left side and the right side, also referred to as x and y respectively. The left side tibble is the tibble that is listed first in the parameter list. The left side may be piped into the join function.

The by parameter controls which columns in the two tibbles are used to match the rows of the two tibbles.

The left_join() function adds columns from the right side to the left side. The added columns will be filled with NAs for rows on the left side that are not matched to the right side. Rows in the right side that do not match the left side are not included.

  1. Using left_join() with all common variables.

    In this example the left join is used with no by parameter. This results in a natural join, a join that is done using all columns that have the same name in the two tibbles.

    The cps_part1 tibble is the left side and cps_78 is the right side.

    cps2 <-
      cps_part1 %>%
      left_join(cps_78)
    Joining, by = c("id", "age", "trt", "educ", "black", "hisp", "marr", "no_deg")
    glimpse(cps2)    
    Observations: 15,992
    Variables: 11
    $ id           <dbl> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15...
    $ age          <dbl> 45, 21, 38, 48, 18, 22, 48, 18, 48, 45, 34, 16, 5...
    $ trt          <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0...
    $ educ         <dbl> 11, 14, 12, 6, 8, 11, 10, 11, 9, 12, 14, 10, 10, ...
    $ black        <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0...
    $ hisp         <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0...
    $ marr         <dbl> 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1...
    $ no_deg       <dbl> 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0...
    $ real_earn_74 <dbl> 21516.6700, 3175.9710, 23039.0200, 24994.3700, 16...
    $ real_earn_75 <dbl> 25243.550, 5852.565, 25130.760, 25243.550, 10727....
    $ real_earn_78 <dbl> 25564.670, 13496.080, 25564.670, 25564.670, 9860....
  2. Using left_join() specifying the common variables to use for matching rows.

    In this example the by parameter is used to identify the column to joined on.

    cps_78 <- select(cps_78, id, real_earn_78)
    
    
    cps3 <-
      cps_part1 %>%
      left_join(cps_78, by = c("id"))
    
    glimpse(cps3)    
    Observations: 15,992
    Variables: 11
    $ id           <dbl> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15...
    $ age          <dbl> 45, 21, 38, 48, 18, 22, 48, 18, 48, 45, 34, 16, 5...
    $ trt          <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0...
    $ educ         <dbl> 11, 14, 12, 6, 8, 11, 10, 11, 9, 12, 14, 10, 10, ...
    $ black        <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0...
    $ hisp         <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0...
    $ marr         <dbl> 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1...
    $ no_deg       <dbl> 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0...
    $ real_earn_74 <dbl> 21516.6700, 3175.9710, 23039.0200, 24994.3700, 16...
    $ real_earn_75 <dbl> 25243.550, 5852.565, 25130.760, 25243.550, 10727....
    $ real_earn_78 <dbl> 25564.670, 13496.080, 25564.670, 25564.670, 9860....
  3. Using left_join() specifying the matching variables that have different names.

    In this example the by parameter is a name vector to identify differently named columns in the two tibbles.

    cps_78 <- rename(cps_78, patient_id = id)
    head(cps_78)
    # A tibble: 6 x 2
      patient_id real_earn_78
           <dbl>        <dbl>
    1          1       25565.
    2          2       13496.
    3          3       25565.
    4          4       25565.
    5          5        9861.
    6          6       25565.
    cps4 <-
      cps_part1 %>%
      left_join(cps_78, by = c("id" = "patient_id"))
    
    glimpse(cps4)    
    Observations: 15,992
    Variables: 11
    $ id           <dbl> 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15...
    $ age          <dbl> 45, 21, 38, 48, 18, 22, 48, 18, 48, 45, 34, 16, 5...
    $ trt          <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0...
    $ educ         <dbl> 11, 14, 12, 6, 8, 11, 10, 11, 9, 12, 14, 10, 10, ...
    $ black        <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0...
    $ hisp         <dbl> 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0...
    $ marr         <dbl> 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1...
    $ no_deg       <dbl> 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0...
    $ real_earn_74 <dbl> 21516.6700, 3175.9710, 23039.0200, 24994.3700, 16...
    $ real_earn_75 <dbl> 25243.550, 5852.565, 25130.760, 25243.550, 10727....
    $ real_earn_78 <dbl> 25564.670, 13496.080, 25564.670, 25564.670, 9860....
  4. Appending tibbles.

    We will append the cps training and testing tibbles that were created in earlier examples.

    cps_all_rows <- 
      cps_train %>%
      bind_rows(cps_test)
    
    dim(cps_all_rows)
    [1] 15992    11

Some other joins

  • right_join() - rows in the left side are matched to the right side.

  • inner_join() - includes only rows that are in both data frames.

  • full_join() - includes all row that are in either data frames.

  • semi_join() - keeps rows in left side that match right side. Does not add columns to the data frame. Duplicate rows are dropped.

  • anti_join() - keeps rows in left side that are not matched in the right side.

  • nest_join() - adds a column of tibbles to the left side. Each tibble contains the rows of the right side that match the row on the left side.