R programming, how do I sort data frame by string column in descending order?

Question

temp <- data.frame(x=c(1,2,3), y=c("ba", "ab", "cc"))
temp
  x y
1 1 ba
2 2 ab
3 3 cc

and I want to order by ascending x and descending y, but it doesn't work even I convert y from factor to string.

tt <- temp[order(-as.character(y)), ]

Error in -as.character(y) : invalid argument to unary operator

akrun · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-07 21:50:59Z

3

We can use decreasing = TRUE

temp[order(as.character(temp$y), decreasing = TRUE),]

answered Apr 7, 2020 at 21:50

akrun

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2 Comments

sorry, I meant, I want to order by ascending x and descending y. like temp[order(x, -as.character(y)), ]

@sunflower In that case, it would give the order of iinput example. Check temp %>% arrange(x, desc(as.character(y))) (from Lennyy's solution)

Lennyy · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-07 21:53:29Z

2

With dplyr:

temp %>% 
  arrange(desc(y))

answered Apr 7, 2020 at 21:53

Lennyy

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