I'm working with a data frame that looks think this:

character <- c("ab",  "acr", "sb",  "ab",  "ab",  "sjr" )
numbers <- c("2823", 
             "2093",  
             "651",                                                                                        
             "876 1604",                                                                                        
             "772 1604 1932",                                                          
             "241 1110 1342 1822" )

df <- data.frame(character, numbers)
df

I want to insert the character values in the character column before each number in the number column.

Such that the output looks like this:

output <- c(  "ab 2823", 
             "acr 2093",  
             "sb 651",                                                                                        
             "ab 876 ab 1604",                                                                                        
             "ab 772 ab 1604 ab 1932",                                                          
             "sjr 241 sjr 1110 sjr 1342 sjr 1822" )

df <- data.frame(character, numbers, output)
df

> df
  character            numbers                              output
1        ab               2823                            ab 2823
2       acr               2093                           acr 2093
3        sb                651                             sb 651
4        ab           876 1604                     ab 876 ab 1604
5        ab      772 1604 1932             ab 772 ab 1604 ab 1932
6       sjr 241 1110 1342 1822 sjr 241 sjr 1110 sjr 1342 sjr 1822

Any code you can provide to help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

CodePudding user response：

mapply to loop across the two data sources, and paste them together:

df$output <- mapply(paste, df$character, strsplit(df$numbers, "\\s "), collapse=" ")
df
#  character            numbers                             output
#1        ab               2823                            ab 2823
#2       acr               2093                           acr 2093
#3        sb                651                             sb 651
#4        ab           876 1604                     ab 876 ab 1604
#5        ab      772 1604 1932             ab 772 ab 1604 ab 1932
#6       sjr 241 1110 1342 1822 sjr 241 sjr 1110 sjr 1342 sjr 1822