Group_by versus Filter in R

[lauratangwt]

Hi guys,

What’s the difference between group_by and filter in R? Do they permanently change a variable that it is being tied to?

Thanks!

[htw]

Hi there.

The Tidyverse documentation is quite helpful and not difficult to understand.

Group By
Most data operations are done on groups defined by variables. group_by() takes an existing dataframe and converts it into a grouped dataframe where operations are performed “by group”. In other words, group_by() restructures your dataframe, but keeps all rows and columns.

Group by one or more variables — group_by

Filter
The filter() function is used to subset a data frame, retaining all rows that satisfy your conditions. To be retained, the row must produce a value of TRUE for all conditions. Filter(), in comparison to group_by does drop entries (if they are not fulfilling the specified condition).

Subset rows using column values — filter

See also the examples in the links provided.